A UCF medical pupil has obtained nationwide recognition for her work in lowering healthcare disparities amongst minorities.

Hannah Wilson, a third-year physician of drugs candidate, obtained the Excellence in Public Health Service Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The award acknowledges medical college students’ contributions to public well being of their neighborhood.

Tracy MacIntosh, affiliate dean of Access, Belonging and Community Engagement at UCF’s College of Medicine, congratulates Wilson on receiving this nationwide recognition.

“Hannah’s strong commitment to health equity, demonstrated by her clinical research and community health experiences, make her a most deserving candidate for this award,” MacIntosh says. “She has led sustainable programs to inspire, mentor and support students from historically marginalized groups, and has consistently gone above and beyond the expectations of a medical student to serve in leadership and clinical capacities to address the needs of students and patients from marginalized groups.”

At UCF, Wilson is a program chief for the Medical Enrichment for Diverse Students (M.E.D.S.), a venture created by medical college students that gives mentorship and medical publicity to Orlando college students from underrepresented backgrounds who’re fascinated with drugs.

Students from Evans, Oakridge, and Jones excessive faculties have benefitted from mentorship, medical abilities workshops, affected person simulations and excursions on the medical faculty. The objective is to extend illustration within the medical subject so healthcare suppliers higher signify the sufferers they serve.

“This award means a lot to me,” Wilson says. “I didn’t do these things for the awards. I did these things because I was passionate about them. It’s nice to be recognized for it, especially coming to the end of my medical school career. It’s a good feeling that my work doesn’t go unnoticed.”

Data exhibits a staggering hole in variety amongst physicians in comparison with the final inhabitants. The Association of American Medical Colleges reported in 2019 that solely 5% of physicians within the nation establish as Black and 5.8% as Hispanic. This lack of variety amongst physicians has been correlated with poor healthcare outcomes amongst sufferers of coloration. Research has proven that sufferers from racial and ethnic minority teams usually tend to obtain higher communication, culturally competent care and have improved well being outcomes when handled by healthcare suppliers who share their racial or ethnic background.

“Minority communities have a general mistrust of the healthcare system,” Wilson says. “So when a patient walks into the room and sees someone that looks like them, they feel more comfortable sharing aspects of their story as to what brought them in. That can better help with diagnosis. And when they’re able to have that trust with the physician, they are more likely to follow the treatment plans, trusting that the doctor has their best interest.”

Wilson has additionally served as president of the Student National Medical Association, the place she led initiatives to assist carry extra consciousness to healthcare disparities and points confronted by minority or marginalized communities.

She additionally volunteered with the Chapman Compassionate Care clinic, a student-run clinic that gives care to the homeless inhabitants in downtown Orlando. As neighborhood outreach coordinator, she educated sufferers on testing for sexually-transmitted ailments, used Narcan for drug overdoses and related sufferers to related assets.

Also at UCF, Wilson pioneered the Bleeding with Dignity venture geared at combating interval poverty by distributing menstrual hygiene merchandise to these in want. Using funding she obtained from the College of Medicine’s Health Equity Scholars program, she packaged interval care kits that had been donated to student-run clinics and girls’s shelters.

“I am very passionate about women’s health and that’s why I want to become an OB-GYN,” Wilson says. “The maternal mortality rate among Black women is very high, and I believe having that physician there who looks like [them] and will believe [their] concerns is one of the biggest ways to tackle that disparity.”