Marlise Pierre-Wright, ‘22 MD, MPA, an internal medicine resident at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and former medical student, has been awarded a multi-institutional grant for her project that will bolster trauma-informed care curriculum and training for residents.
The “Building Trust through Diversity, Health Care Equity, and Inclusion in Internal Medicine Training” grants are awarded by the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, the American Board of Internal Medicine, the ABIM Foundation, the American College of Physicians, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.
This year’s grants were given to a select pool of 18 medical schools and teaching hospitals across the U.S., totaling approximately $1.2 million. The grants will support interprofessional projects that will advance health equity and address diagnostic gaps.
For her project, called “Building Trust through Trauma-Informed Care,” Pierre-Wright will lead a team of Northwestern investigators in developing a protocol that will increase a resident’s ability to conduct trauma histories and respond appropriately and confidently to disclosures of trauma in the inpatient setting.
Muriel Jean-Jacques, MD, associate professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and associate vice chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Department of Medicine, will co-lead the project with Pierre-Wright.
“A patient’s level of trust in their providers is most correlated with physician communication, interpersonal treatment, and knowledge of the patient. By giving residents the confidence and ability to screen for a patient’s trauma history, respond appropriately to disclosures of trauma, and provide the appropriate next steps for addressing their trauma, we hypothesize that this protocol will improve trust between the residents and patients,” Pierre-Wright said.
Additional team members include Aashish Didwania, MD, ‘05, ‘06 GME, the John Sherman Appleman Professor of Medical Education; Jeffrey Linder, ‘97 MD, MPH, the Michael A. Gertz Professor of Medicine and chief of General Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine; Christine Schaeffer, MD, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Elizabeth Scharle, MD, MS, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine; Bruce Henschen, ’12 MD, ’12 MPH, ’15,’16 GME, associate professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and of Medical Education; Maria Theodorou, MD, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine; and Sarah Chuzi, ‘14 MD, ‘12 MS, ‘15, ‘17, ‘18 GME, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology.
This year’s other grant recipients include Duke University School of Medicine, Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, Emory University School of Medicine, LSU Health Shreveport School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Northwell Health, One Brooklyn Health, Parkland Health, State University of New York at Buffalo, Thomas Jefferson University, UAB Heersink School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, the University of Iowa, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin.