Our partners, our community members
Academic medicine has always been described as having a “tripartite mission,” and without a doubt, those three components—education, clinical care, and research—are tightly braided at Iowa. Though I have addressed our relationship to each of these components in separate posts over the last few weeks, there are elements of each embedded in the others. We teach while we make discoveries or deliver care, and we ensure our efforts today are impactful for those who rise up tomorrow. It is an elegant blend. But I am not the first to argue that this braid has a fourth thread, community engagement, and should be considered just as essential. We should be just as conscious of our relationship with our community in Iowa City, the state, and the world around us.
This is not a novel concept. It is why the NIH asks for a community engagement strategy on some grant applications. That push has led in part to the UI’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Science addition of a Community & Patient Engagement Core to counsel researchers on this element. The VA-funded health services research Center for Innovation known as CADRE, in which many of our faculty serve, has often sought stakeholder input throughout a research project’s life cycle. Patient advisory boards like the one the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center (HCCC) established in 2019 and even our Office of the Patient Experience all ensure that the people we serve can tell us directly what is working, what matters most, and where we need to improve. In just this week’s issue of the Holden Highlights newsletter, newly appointed HCCC Director Dr. Mark Burkard said in his first missive that one of his priorities will be to address the “high incidence of cancer in Iowa” by “seeking to identify the underlying cause and expanding the community outreach and engagement component.” I applaud the sentiment and believe that Dr. Burkard will find many volunteers for this work among his new Iowa neighbors.
Our neighbors are the first from whom we should seek input and with whom we can collaborate. In Dr. Jeydith Gutierrez’s recent newsletter, she points to an event next week being held downtown on Wednesday, August 28, at Iowa City’s community movie theater, FilmScene. Our UI Health Care addiction medicine specialists and faculty members Drs. Poorani Sekar and Andrea Weber will help lead a discussion anchored by a documentary about opioid addiction. You can reserve your free tickets here. Drs. Sekar and Weber will be joined by members of the local nonprofit Community and Family Resources, which has provided treatment and services for substance use disorder since 1968. Another local organization is only a few years younger but has been served by many of our medical students, trainees, and faculty, the Iowa City Free Medical and Dental Clinic (FMC). As we expand our Health Equity distinction track for our residents, the FMC will continue to play a role in preparing future leaders to address the health needs of the underserved and other low-resource communities.
Service to local communities is critical as is making sure that we are meeting the needs they communicate in a way that is beneficial. That requires conversation and a willingness to adapt and incorporate feedback. Although the most personal impact will always be at the local level, I am also encouraged by the number of our faculty members who participate in professional organizations. Many of us participate in groups like the Iowa chapters of the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, American College of Gastroenterology, etc. And more than a few of us are even in leadership roles with the organizations, even at the national level. These are fantastic opportunities to influence policy at state and national levels and should be considered just as necessary community engagement.
Finally, I believe that although groups of us are making ripples here and changing lives there, we can have bigger impacts when we work together as a department. A few years ago the department formed a committee to coordinate that effort to great success. We supported a local hospice home, the Iowa City Community School District, and the local food bank. I understand why these efforts subsided in our responses to the pandemic, but I believe that it is time to re-ignite the Community Engagement & Services committee. Watch for a call for volunteers coming soon.