2025 Colorado Healthcare Ethics Forum Annual Conference

Check-in with registration staff and collect any conference materials. Breakfast provided until 8:30am.;

The program will define the Social Justice Model and its relevance to healthcare. Social Justice model offers a framework for addressing inequities in healthcare and promotes health equity for all patients regardless of their cultural background or socioeconomic status. By examining the intersections of race, class, gender, and other social determinants of health, we will uncover how systemic inequities impact the five principles of the social justice model: access, equity, participation, diversity, and human rights. The five principles of the Social Justice can transform healthcare delivery, ensuring equitable access and outcomes for all. Social Justice in healthcare is about ensuring that everyone can live a healthy life and receive high-quality care regardless of their background or circumstances. As a society, we are responsible for our responsiveness to the systemic inequities in healthcare and improving the experience of our patients.

Objectives:

1. Gain a comprehensive understanding of the principles of a Social Justice Model as a method for identifying inequity and bias healthcare.
2. Identifying the barriers to applying the five principles of the Social Justice Model.
3. Examining the issues of health inequity for an under-resourced or marginalized population.
4. How can we as a community promote, support, and apply the Social Justice Model in healthcare.

This lecture addresses "twin aims" theories of health and social justice. Specifically, the lecture will ground the concept of health equity in a rigorous account of justice that emphasizes the twin aims: improving overall population health and compressing health inequity. The talk explains why a robust framework is necessary, explains why health interventions often fail the twin aims approach, and justifies the twin aims account as an ethically optimal approach to advancing health equity.

The talk will offer some practical examples of twin aims interventions in health policy and health professional practice, and tie the approach to key anti-oppressive efforts that aim to counter structural violence in the health professions.

Objectives:

• Explain the concept of a twin-aims approach to health and social justice;
•  Identify two reasons why a twin aims approach is important to advancing health equity; and
• Identify two examples of health interventions that satisfy a twin aims approach. 

Break

Review of world, US & CO black maternal and infant mortality. With calls to action.

Objectives:

• Learn about worldwide/US and Colorado MMR Black infant mortality rate 
• Identify solutions 
• Identify next steps 

This lecture will discuss ethical concepts that apply to bias and discrimination in healthcare affecting individuals in the US based on their citizenship and nationality.

1. Describe the impact of healthcare bias and discrimination based on citizenship and nationality, on individuals, communities, and society.
2. Describe the ethical principles that apply to citizenship and nationality bias and discrimination in healthcare.

Buffet lunch with colleagues.

Join us for an insightful conference presentation exploring the "Urban Underserved" class at RVUCOM. This transformative two-semester enrichment track prepares medical students to serve diverse and vulnerable populations adeptly. This course not only educates students about the unique healthcare needs of refugees, homeless individuals, veterans, and the LGBTQ community in the Metropolitan Denver area but also deeply immerses them in the complexities and rewards of working with these underserved groups.

Our presentation will focus on the experiential learning and personal growth our students achieve through their involvement in the class, confronting challenges such as PTSD, addiction, and language barriers that complicate healthcare delivery.

The session will highlight how the course integrates clinical experiences with a strong foundation in the social determinants of health, enhancing students' abilities to navigate and address issues like income insecurity, food scarcity, and employment challenges that often intersect with health outcomes.

This program not only augments students' medical education but also enriches their perspective on global health and social responsibility. By attending, you will gain insights into how future healthcare professionals are being equipped to deliver compassionate and competent care to some of the most marginalized communities, ultimately shaping them into more empathetic, effective practitioners.

Objectives:

Understand the Unique Challenges: Gain a comprehensive understanding of the specific healthcare needs and challenges faced by underserved populations such as refugees, homeless individuals, veterans, and LGBTQ communities in urban settings. Engage with Real-World Outcomes: Hear first-hand accounts from students about their transformative experiences and the practical skills they have acquired, which they can apply in their future medical practices.

This session will focus on income as a social determinant of health by integrating both lecture and activities. Inequities in the health of our communities consistently exist for people with lower incomes due to income as a contributing factor to health outcomes and as a factor inter-related to other social determinants of health. For health professionals to address health equity, it is critical to understand the connection between income and health, both through data and the root causes of these inequities, or the “why” of income inequity. Participants will learn about the systems that impact health inequities in both healthcare and the community and will be challenged to think through the systems in which they operate and work through a process to re-design these systems, connecting clinical interventions to community context and community interventions. We will look at the socioecological model for health and identify ways that participants can engage to shift inequities as professionals and as members of their own communities. Participants will leave feeling as though they are part of the solution to shift the status of health outcomes for people of lower incomes!

Objectives:

By the end of this presentation, participants will:

1.  Explain income as a social determinant of health;
2. Understand the systems that impact income-based health inequities and how to re-design to support lower-income community members;
3. Bridge healthcare interventions with community interventions to support whole-person health;
4. Understand ways to engage to remove income inequities 

Networking break.

Until recently, people with disability have historically been excluded from equity and diversity conversations in healthcare. This has perpetuated the long standing, structural ableist conditions in our healthcare system and society. The presentation will include examples of how historical ableist views are present in today' healthcare setting and teams, and the initial steps needed to advance equitable and just healthcare for people with disabilities.

Objectives:

1. Define the social model of disability and its role in understanding and addressing ableism in healthcare.
2. Identify actions healthcare teams can take to ensuring equitable and just delivery of care to patients with disabilities.

Conference wrap-up. This session will cover the key points covered during the day.