Thurs July 2, 2026; 11:30-12:30 EST - ZOOM Presentation
Title: Health professions disability curricula: if you build it, will they come?
Summary: If widely available curriculum included models for disability-inclusive health professions, and were incorporated into interprofessional clinical education, would they be used and result in culture change?
For the last 3 years, a team of health professions educators at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) have been dedicated to testing this hypothesis. With the help of funding from HRSA, we have been creating freely available curricula on a publicly facing website for broad health professions audience. The presenters will share our approach—e.g., our guiding principles, process, work products (see https://adih.uic.edu), and experience to date, utilization of the curriculum within a clinic devoted to people with disabilities who have complex care needs. We will engage our attendees in a discussion of the challenges of dissemination and usage.
Presenters:
Erin Hickey, MD is an internal medicine and pediatrics (med-peds) faculty member at UIC. She is the medical director of the Lifespan Disability Clinic (LDC) https://hospital.uillinois.edu/primary-and-specialty-care/disability-inclusive-care and principal investigator on the HRSA grant, “Working to right a wrong: Training medical students to care for people with physical, intellectual and developmental disabilities” (2023-2028). Her medical interests include the care of children and adults with disabilities, as well as the health care transition of children and adolescents with chronic conditions into the adult model of care.
Kristi L. Kirschner, MD is a physician specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation with particular interest in the needs of patients with complex neurological disabilities, including adults with spina bifida, neuromuscular diseases and cerebral palsy. She is a Clinical Professor in the University of Illinois College of Medicine Department of Medical Education (DME), and a co-investigator on the HRSA curricular training grant. https://chicago.medicine.uic.edu/medical-education/profiles/kirschner-kristi-2/
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