MD Program Opportunities: Health Equity & Advocacy
A group of people at a retreat under a tent reading a poster

Discover and Grow

Connecting and engaging across communities.

Commitment to Support

In your journey to becoming a physician leader, it is incumbent upon you to uncover and learn about your biases, broaden your cultural humility, and understand your values and how all of these shape the care you give. We also want you to feel like a welcome and valued member of our learning community while you do so. 

At Michigan, you will find the tools and resources to serve diverse patients in communities around the corner and across the globe, pursue research questions about equity and inclusion, and learn from interacting with an amazing group of peers and mentors.

Explore Opportunities

M1s who serve on the Curriculum on Health Disparities and Underserved (CHDU) committee are committed to seeking out ongoing opportunities to incorporate meaningful health disparities education into the M1 curriculum. After identifying these opportunities, CHDU members engage with students, faculty and administration to craft implementation plans. Ongoing projects include providing incoming students with resources for self-learning and discussion through reflection questions, and developing programming to enhance Race, Identity, and Privilege in Medicine discussions during the M1 year.

The CHDU has also created a maternal health disparities supplement for the Scientific Trunk's Pregnancy and Reproduction content; worked with dermatology faculty to provide feedback on lecture slides using a DEI framework; collaborated with the Student Council to create a review process for DEI-related concerns that arise from questions on evaluations/assessments; incorporated learning objectives, supplemental readings and edits to the Doctoring course substance use disorder packet; and worked with Doctoring course administration to improve sessions, including the session on Immigration and Health.

Health Equity Scholars Program (HESP) - Maintains long-term community partnerships with:

OutMD Student Org: Creates Medical School Pride Alliance Report Cards

Student Diversity Council

White Coats for Black Lives (WC4BL) Student Org: Creates institutional Racial Justice Report Cards

White Coats for Planetary Health Student Org

American Indian Health and Family Services of Southeastern Michigan

Arab American Health Initiative (AAHI): Non-profit started by Michigan medical students.

Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS): Students can volunteer or do an elective rotation.

Delonis Clinic: The clinic, located at the Delonis Homeless Shelter in Ann Arbor, provides free medical services to all comers. It operates one night weekly under the guidance of one UMMS faculty member, one resident and one student coordinator. In addition, two students volunteer each week. The student volunteers, usually M1s, perform a focused history and physical on each patient and then meet with the attending or resident to decide on a plan. Volunteering at the clinic is a great way for preclinical students to practice their clinical skills.

Hope Medical Clinic

Medical Home Visit: Students work with physicians VA Home Based Primary Care

Migrant Health Center/FQHC affiliated with Bay City program: Du Russell Potato Farm

University of Michigan Asylum Collaborative (UMAC)

University of Michigan Student-Run Free Clinic 

Wolverine Street Medicine (Dose of Reality post)

GLOBAL HEALTH EQUITY:

Fogarty International Center Fellowship (Project example: Expanding surgical services in Rwanda)

Global Health & Disparities Path of Excellence

Global REACH (student funding, faculty funding, research support)

COMMUNITY-BASED HEALTH EQUITY:

Capstone Project Archives: Extensive references to clinics that other students collaborated with in past years.

Global Health & Disparities Path of Excellence

Michigan medical students have access to several opportunities to improve their medical language skills through electives and student groups including Medicine in Spanish, Medicine in Mandarin, American Sign Language, Medical French and Medical Arabic.

Diversity in Medicine Conference: Unites health professionals from across the country to highlight efforts to increase diversity in medicine.

HOPE Symposium: Creating pipelines and pathways for an equitable future in the healthcare workforce.

Moses Gunn Research Conference

Clinical Electives Program

Medical Research Scholars Program

The following mentorship and menteeship programs are available to all University of Michigan medical students: 

MENTORSHIP:

Black Medical Association (BMA) mentorship program with students in Black Undergraduate Medical Association (BUMA)

Doctors of Tomorrow (Video)

Frog Island Track Club

Latin American and Native American Medical Association (LANAMA) mentorship program with students in Latinx Undergraduate Medical Association (LUMA) 

MiHealth

Success Connects: Mentorship opportunities with pre-health U-M undergraduate students.

MENTEESHIP:

American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) Mentorship Pairing Program 

Anesthesiology Mentorship Program

Dermatology Pathways Program

Department of Surgery LEAGUES Program

Michigan Ophthalmology Pipeline Program

Paths of Excellence Faculty Advisor Pairings: Through a Paths of Excellence track, students are hand-selected mentors based on shared interests or experiences.

Urology Pipeline Program (Uroversity)

These student groups welcome all medical students to participate:

Black Medical Association (BMA) 

Catholic Medical Student Association

Christian Medical Association (CMA) 

Doctors of Tomorrow (DOT)

First in Family

Jewish Medical Student Association (JeMSA)

Latin American and Native American Medical Association (LANAMA) 

Medical Students for Disability Health & Advocacy (MSDHA)

Medical Students of Middle-Eastern Descent (MSMD)

OutMD

Parents in Medical School (PiMS)

South Asian Medical Student Association (SAMoSA)

United Asian American Medical Student Association (UAAMSA)

One of our central goals is that each future physician improves access and health care for underserved and vulnerable patients and populations in their everyday work, whether it be academic medicine, teaching, research, or community practice."

Brent Williams
MD, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Co-Director of the Global Health & Disparities Path of Excellence
Communities We Serve

Some of our faculty research mentors talk about what inspires them to seek answers for individual patients and entire communities they may never meet, and the significant contributions medical students make to push our knowledge forward while they train with us.