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Stanford Report, May 12, 2004 | |
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Students
advocate policy changes in fast food, prescription drugs
By RUTHANN RICHTER As part of the new medical curriculum, first-year students are learning to become advocates for change, pressing for policy shifts that would eliminate fast food from Palo Alto high schools and open the door to the purchase of low-cost prescription drugs from Canada, among other things.These are among the 22 projects students have taken on as part of a new advocacy program at the medical school designed to make its future doctors active leaders in their communities. "Physicians can be leaders through research and scholarship but also by stepping out and making a difference in their communities or taking a part in issues that are important to their practices," said Clarence Braddock, MD, associate professor of medicine and the course director. "This is a message to students that this is an important role physicians can play and give them experience in playing this role." Students developed the yearlong projects as part of a new required element in the curriculum in which they had to identify and research contemporary health-care issues and work with community partners to develop an action plan. One group decided to tackle the issue of fast food, whose high-fat, high-calorie content is believed to be a major contributor to the obesity epidemic among teens and adults. The students have been working with a PTA committee in the Palo Alto Unified School District and with a Santa Clara County Public Health nutritionist to eliminate fast-food vending machines from Palo Alto's two high schools. Another group of students is trying to promote federal and state policies to encourage patients and health-care systems to purchase low-cost prescription drugs from Canadian sources. The students have organized a town-hall forum on the issue, to be held May 24 at the medical center. Students will showcase projects Monday at 1:15 p.m. in Fairchild Auditorium.
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From AIDS to X-rays, students will present research (5/5/04) |
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