Identifying the state of social accountability at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine through an internal environmental scan

Grace Zhu,Claire Kendall,Lorne Wiesenfeld,Nicole Kester,Craig Campbell,Melissa Forgie,Michael Fitzgerald,Paul Hendry,Sophie Lamontagne

doi:10.15694/mep.2021.000054.1

Abstract

MedEdPublish (ISSN 2312–7996) is a highly visible, open access, specialist practitioner e-journal that enables academics, teachers, clinicians, researchers and students to publish their experiences, views and research findings relating to teaching, learning and assessment in medical and health professions education. An innovative and key feature of MedEdPublish is that the peer review process begins following publication.

Highlights

The concept of social accountability consists in medical schools’ obligation to direct their activities towards addressing the priority health concerns of the communities or regions they serve as identified jointly with governments, health care organizations, health professionals and the public (Boelen and Heck, 1995)
The description of the Men’s Access to Gay Informed Care (MAGIC) project exemplified the centrality of engagement to social accountability: our approach is gay-positive, gay-informed, community-oriented and empowering, and engages both gay men and healthcare providers, while the Access to Resources in the Community (ARC) project explicitly mentions priority health needs defined through engagement: With the help of the community organizations, policy and decision-makers, patient partners and health care professionals [...] ARC was able to address the priority needs as defined by the community
We found that "partnership" was the value most often exemplified by socially accountable items, highlighting their extensive engagement with communities and stakeholders. These findings were reflected in the qualitative analysis of the brief descriptions, which described a diverse range of projects, spanning Faculty domains, populations/communities, and the social obligation gradient

Summary

Introduction

The concept of social accountability consists in medical schools’ obligation to direct their activities towards addressing the priority health concerns of the communities or regions they serve as identified jointly with governments, health care organizations, health professionals and the public (Boelen and Heck, 1995). On the social obligation gradient, social accountability goes beyond simple awareness of health inequities and the role of social determinants of health (social responsibility) or undertaking activities to address those health inequities (social responsiveness) (Boelen and Woollard, 2011; Boelen et al, 2016). In addition to these features, social accountability is defined by engagement with the communities served by the medical school (Boelen et al, 2016). Canadian faculties of medicine report regularly on their activities in this area, but it is unclear if communities are able to identify their needs in these processes

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