VERONICA X. VELA
Advancing Population & Community Health
Through Innovative Problem Solving
INNOVATION EDUCATION IN MEDICAL SCHOOL
In 2018, George Washington University (GW) Medical School tasked third year medical students with developing solutions to address obesity among women and children in Washington, D.C. The city ranks 50th out of the 51 states for obesity.
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23% of adults are obese
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33% of teenagers are obese
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13% of toddlers are obese.
Many universities focus on traditional population health methods, such as reviewing the literature, analyzing trends and using scholarly frameworks to create interventions. However, GW wanted to add human centered design (HCD) to integrate input from the community.
This project explored:
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How might we create a HCD training session and workshop for medical student leaders?
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How might we prepare the student leaders to train their peers on the HCD process?
Photos: Sarah Minkis
We had the best obesity projects presented this year. The students understood the need to gather input from the community. We definitely want to teach human centered design to students in next year's program.
Dean of Clinical Public Health
George Washington University Medical School