The Social Medicine & Health Equity (SMHE) Track aims to provide a multidisciplinary and longitudinal opportunity for MedStar residents and fellows to explore the social, racial, cultural, and historical forces that shape health and illness as well as gain an understanding of U.S. health policy, community engagement, and advocacy, and their implications for medical practice and health care delivery.
These areas are explored through monthly touchpoints and quarterly half-day site visits. Participants develop advocacy skills during an annual Advocacy Day in Washington, DC, engaging directly with members of Congress on key health policy issues. Each participant also completes a minimum two-week rotation aligned with the track’s focus and concludes the program with a capstone presentation. Read on for more details!
The Social Medicine & Health Equity (SMHE) Track aims to provide a multidisciplinary and longitudinal opportunity for MedStar residents and fellows to explore the social, racial, cultural, and historical forces that shape health and illness as well as gain an understanding of U.S. health policy, community engagement, and advocacy, and their implications for medical practice and health care delivery.
These areas are explored through monthly touchpoints, quarterly half-day site visits, and an asynchronous curriculum curated using Canvas. Participants choose at least one local or domestic elective in the spirit of the track or have the opportunity to work with a community site throughout their two years. Each participant works closely with a faculty mentor to complete and present a capstone project.
Applications will be accepted each winter for the upcoming academic year. Residents may apply during or after their intern year, with at least two years left in their residency, so that they can complete the two-year track. Residents must be in good academic standing and receive approval from their program director. Fellows may also apply, however residents will be given priority in the application process.
2/3/2026: The application window has closed.
Below is a sample of topics covered during our two-year didactic curriculum:
Health disparities & the social determinants of health
Health care inequity & health justice
Racial inequity & implicit bias in medical education
Health policy & health care reform
Violence as a public health crisis
Community medicine & engagement
Mental health care & substance abuse
Homelessness and street medicine
Refugee and migrant health
Human trafficking
LGBTQ health
Public health & emergency preparedness
Advocacy & leadership
As part of the Social Medicine & Health Equity Track, residents participate in immersive half-day site visits with leading community organizations across Washington, DC and Baltimore. These experiences introduce participants to the real-world contexts shaping health and build relationships with partners advancing equity on the ground.
Examples of our site visits include federally qualified health centers such as Unity Health Care; immigrant- and asylee-support organizations like Asylee Women Enterprise; comprehensive social-needs and legal aid providers including Bread for the City; LGBTQ+ affirming clinical leaders such as Whitman-Walker Clinic; regional food security partners like the Maryland Food Bank; and hospital-based violence prevention partners such as the MedStar Community Violence Intervention Program.
Together, these visits provide residents with a deeper understanding of community strengths, systemic challenges, and opportunities for advocacy and partnership.
Participants complete a minimum of a two-weeks in an elective aligned with the mission of the Social Medicine & Health Equity Track. These electives deepen engagement with populations and systems impacted by inequities, and allow residents to translate learning into practice.
Whitman-Walker Health elective is a longitudinal clinic experience focused on providing primary care to persons living with HIV. Residents who rotate here have the opportunity to learn the clinical skills needed to provide cultural and gender-affirming care, manage HIV, and prescribe PReP and PEP. They will also learn the social determinants and equity barriers that exist for this unique population, and DC-based resources to address these issues. Past participants have done 2 half days every clinic block with their preceptor.
This two-week elective offers residents an immersive experience in delivering primary and urgent care to individuals experiencing homelessness through Unity Health Care, one of DC’s largest community health providers. Trainees work alongside clinicians in shelters, outreach clinics, and mobile health settings to gain firsthand insight into the medical, social, and structural challenges faced by unhoused patients.
The Departments of Medicine and Family Medicine co-direct a Health Policy and Public Health elective. This elective is designed to provide an overview of insurance systems, healthcare economics, healthcare reform, global health, and public health. Faculty lecturers from the Medical School, Law Center, Robert Graham Center, and numerous outside experts contribute to the course. Subjects are presented through panel discussions, interactive projects, lectures, and site visits to government agencies and health policy and public health think tanks in the Washington DC area.
Other specialties may be possible upon request
Chinle, Arizona: Family Medicine, Internal Medicine
Zuni, New Mexico: Med-Peds, Family Medicine
Fort Defiance, Arizona: Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Obstetrics
A local opportunity in the District of Columbia to gain clinical experience in a variety of infectious diseases in a diverse population. DC license is required.
A local opportunity in a Baltimore clinic providing free, comprehensive healthcare to a diverse, uninsured population. Residents and fellows gain first-hand experience providing care in a resource-limited setting.
No language requirement for this high-quality clinical experience in the Navajo Nation. Experiences vary based on specialty and clinical site. Housing is provided.
US Asylum Seekers are brought from the Mexican border by Department of Homeland Security to this shelter and clinic where 24-7 stabilization care is provided. Acute and Chronic medical issues are addressed for adults and children of all ages, including pregnant women.
No language requirement for this local opportunity in the District of Columbia. At this clinical rotation site, residents gain experience in a variety of infectious diseases in a diverse patient population.
Whitman-Walker Health elective is a longitudinal clinic experience focused on providing primary care to persons living with HIV. Residents who rotate here have the opportunity to learn the clinical skills needed to provide cultural and gender-affirming care, manage HIV, and prescribe PReP and PEP. They will also learn the social determinants and equity barriers that exist for this unique population, and DC-based resources to address these issues. Past participants have done 2 half days every clinic block with their preceptor.
Through this elective, participants can take a deeper dive into health policy. “The Larger Context: Health Systems, Policy, and Public Health for Clinicians” is a collaborative effort that will bring residents, students, and policy makers together to experience and learn the health care system through lectures from national experts and site visits. The course will illustrate how the patients you have been caring for in your clinical rotations in the hospital and in the community are affected by the larger health care system. Our faculty lecturers, as well as invited outside experts who work in health policy and public health organizations, will speak to the students about important health system issues and how to incorporate public health and public policy knowledge into their future careers. We will take advantage of our training location in the nation’s capital and have the students visit various health policy and public health agencies and institutions. The course is a four-week elective for medical students, the first two weeks of the elective are open to residents.
Through this elective, participants can take a deeper dive into community medicine and the social determinants of health. This two-week Baltimore-based rotation will provide residents with a unique opportunity to learn about the world of social medicine and how population and community health initiatives work to address its various components. Baltimore-based internal medicine residents will be given priority for a space in this elective.
Through this elective, participants learn about MedStar’s Community Violence Intervention Program (CVIP) and how CVIP helps patients who are victims of violent injury recover, reduce violent re-injury, and address specific needs of survivors with the goal of breaking the cycle of violence in communities.
Advocacy Day gives residents direct experience translating clinical and community insights into policy action. Through brief training and facilitated meetings with policymakers, trainees learn effective advocacy skills and practice elevating health equity priorities in the legislative arena.
The track culminates at the end of 2 years with a capstone presentation at the Medstar Health-Georgetown University Research & Education Symposium.
With faculty mentorship, track participants develop scholarly activity in the field of health equity. This can be designed through multiple avenues, whether through collaborative research, community service/engagement, curriculum design, or other academic collaboration.
Social Medicine & Health Equity Track residents and fellows include their community partners in their presentations in shared achievement and celebration of these collaborations.
“I was so excited when the Social Medicine Health Equity Track became available to residents at the end of my intern year. Not only have I become a part of a group of residents that share the same passion for advocacy, but I have learned to incorporate social determinants of health into patient care.
The connections I have made through this opportunity have opened the door to several electives in homeless and social medicine. Even more, the mentorship and guidance have encouraged me to pursue fellowship training. I am confident that with the information I have gained from this experience, I am providing more inclusive, patient-centered care to the most vulnerable.”
“The Social Medicine and Health Equity Track is easily my favorite component of residency. The monthly meetings consistently provide the knowledge and nuance needed to understand topics such as homelessness, the opioid epidemic, refugee health, etc. I particularly love the academic half days, because they feature vastly different models of how we as physicians can address disparities. Although the track is designed to provide a broad understanding of social medicine and health equity, I have also been able to deepen my interests in teaching social medicine, disparities among the HIV/AIDS population, and health policy through the electives and capstone project.
The SHME community has also been extremely important to me. It consists of colleagues from different residencies across the MedStar system, and I feel comfortable reaching out to the group to get dinner, share articles and discuss current events, go to conferences, advocacy events, etc. I love hearing and learning from my co-resident’s perspectives. Furthermore, the leadership is very intentional about finding mentors to help us with our projects and overall professional development. I am grateful this track was created and the opportunity to be part of its inaugural class, as it has catalyzed my personal and professional growth.”
Click here to learn more about Graduate Medical Education’s commitment to Social Medicine & Health Equity and track leadership.
