We launched a peer mentorship program in 2024 with the goal to pair current medical students and facilitate mentorship, community, and support. This project will focus on evaluating the effectiveness, impact, and participant experiences of those within the program.

The project is being led by Kelsey Auman, Amy Bugwadia, and Zak Khaleel. They are our MSDCI Directors of Mentorship, Communications, and Strategy & Sustainability, respectively.

We are evaluating how each allopathic medical school publicizes their allyship to prospective students with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses. This work will quantify the possible discrepancies in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across medical schools. The end product is a peer-reviewed journal summarizing the results of our findings.

The project lead is Ifeoma Ikedionwu, previous Director of Internal Affairs and current National Associate Director.

We are “mapping” the existing evidence on educational interventions on disability in undergraduate medical education (UME) to determine the different types of evidence, to clarify key concepts where there might be varying definitions or applications, and to identify knowledge gaps. The end product will include thematic sub-analyses on disability types and their corresponding disability-curriculum intervention across both scholarly and non-scholarly sources (e.g. policy-pieces, advocacy groups, and others)

The Principal Investigator is Catherine Stratton, our Director of Research, with plans to begin during the 2024 – 2025 academic year.