The American College of Internal Medicine has given its top honor to a program at the University of Connecticut that uses volunteers to help fight health inequities in the community.
The student-run UConn Health Leaders program uses iPads to screen patients for social determinants of health, such as unemployment, food insecurity, and transportation instability, and then connects them to community organizations that can help, the Hartford Courant reports.
"The program provides direct patient care experiences that allows students to both learn how unmet social needs impact health outcomes but be the change agent to make the difference," says Dr. Christopher Steele, who oversees the program.
The Society of General Internal Medicine gave its Quality and Practice Innovation Award to the team last month, praising the program for improving care "within the quality domains of safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency, and equality."
More than 3,000 volunteers have been trained so far.
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