When luck has nothing to do with it. By Dr. Frances Wedgwood

“We’re so lucky to have these wonderful trainees,” I would often hear from my fellow GP educators. I would say it too. And indeed, we did feel lucky to have these brilliant, passionate, clever trainees who would breeze through their exams without needing any additional support, intrigue us with their thoughtful reflections and challenge us […]

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Visualising the invisible narrative of ‘Differential Attainment’. By Dr. Nagina Khan, Prof. Partha Kar and Prof. Subodh Dave

Differential Attainment Many medical educators ‘have been’ and ‘remain’ challenged by the concept of Differential Attainment (DA). The term DA describes a variation in levels of educational achievement that occurs between different demographic groups undertaking the same assessments. But this is not limited to medical education, Regan De Bere et al, have shown that DA […]

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Community Research Engagement Network (CREN): helping communities understand the benefits of engagement and participation in research. A participatory community perspective of engagement in research. By Lily Keck, Claudia Sykes and Dr. Nagina Khan

Why is it important to work together to involve and engage communities in research? It is very important to understand what public involvement means. It has been defined by INVOLVE, the national advisory group that supports public involvement, as “Research being carried out ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or […]

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Silence about disabled doctors is a political statement in itself: the solution is intersectionality? By Prof. Shibley Rahman

“The way we imagine discrimination or disempowerment often is more complicated for people who are subjected to multiple forms of exclusion. The good news is that intersectionality provides us a way to see it.” Prof Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw Defining disability Given the overall sensitivity of disability policy in the UK, there are various ways of […]

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Delivering true health equity: just because it’s hard to do, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. By Dr. Amrit Sachar and Dr. Nagina Khan.

“There’s an ingrained societal suspicion that intentionally supporting one group hurts another. That equity is a zero sum game. In fact, when the nation targets support where it is needed most—when we create the circumstances that allow those who have been left behind to participate and contribute fully—everyone wins.” The Curb Cut Effect -Angela Glover […]

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A roadmap for health equity and social justice? By Roger Kline, MaryAnn Ferreux, Durka Dougall and Randeep Kaur Kular

Since 2010 there has been a steady stream of legislation, policy initiatives and reports, all intended (in some cases purporting) to tackle health inequalities – which are by definition unfair and avoidable, causing immense damage not only to many of our citizens but to the economy and social fabric of the country too.  In the […]

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Part three – Challenging Healthcare Inequalities and Social Justice. By Dr. Nagina Khan

“The purpose of knowledge is action, not knowledge” Aristotle However, it is also possible that this action, sanctioned by Aristotle can prove advantageous for some sections of society because of the concept of social engineering, which is a form of social planning. It can be understood as –  using knowledge and resources ‘to better’ certain […]

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Choosing courage over comfort in the climate crisis: Are our health institutions prepared to do what it takes? By Rammina Yassaie

The climate crisis is the biggest health crisis we have ever faced, having been described as a “code red for humanity”. Given both the well-established health consequences of the climate emergency as well as the vulnerability of healthcare services to the threats of climate change itself, health institutions are well placed to advocate for change. […]

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