Dear Fellow AAIM Members,
Happy Black History Month! As we celebrate the many contributions, triumphs, and accomplishments of African-Americans through all sectors of society this month, we must acknowledge the continued violence, police brutality, and racial inequities plaguing this country and recognize that we, as a society but also as individuals, still have plenty work to do for restorative justice and equity. May we all be reminded that "What we do is more important than what we say or what we say we believe." - Bell Hooks, scholar & activist (1952-2021)
Let us move past words and beliefs and continue to do the work together, as a community, to promote equity in medicine and medical education. AIMW23 is sure to help you use history as a guide to identify strategies to achieve and sustain anti-racism and justice in health care and academic medicine with Utibe Essien, MD's, plenary session and many more DEI-focused sessions. There is no need to wait until then to identify strategies for your institution, so feel free to check out resources from AAIM about bias mitigation strategies, promoting equity in the clinical learning environment and clerkship grading, promoting equity in the interview process, and more.
I am grateful for AAIM's leadership and members for prioritizing equity and anti-racism in academic medicine. As Chair of the AAIM Diversity, Equity. and Inclusion Advisory Group, I am honored to be joined by a phenomenal group of educators, scholars, and AAIM staff members, committed to our charge of helping AAIM strategically further its goals of promoting equity and anti-racism across the organization and among departments of internal medicine. Feel free to share thoughts and suggestions with us at diversity@im.org.
Chavon Onumah, MD, MPH, MEd
Director, Internal Medicine Residency Program
The George Washington University School of Medicine