BACKGROUND: Health equity is receiving increased attention in medical education. However, guidance is often lacking on how to integrate health equity into routine medical education. Journal club presents an opportunity to deepen medical educators’ and learners’ understanding of health equity principles and use it as a lens through which to critically appraise the literature.
AIM: We present a health equity framework, iteratively co-created by faculty and learners, that can be applied in a journal club setting.
SETTING: Academic medical center in New York City, USA.
PARTICIPANTS: Faculty, residency program directors, medical students, and residents.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: Authors developed the health equity journal club framework during a medical student selective course. Learner and faculty applied the framework to journal club articles; their feedback informed revisions. Framework domains included authorship, ethics, methodology, language, peer review, and references.
PROGRAM EVALUATION: Learner evaluations were overall positive, and 86% (n = 13) of responding residency program directors (n = 15) across 15 departments who were surveyed plan to use the framework moving forward.
DISCUSSION: A health equity journal club framework applied to critical appraisal of the literature may facilitate health equity as a routine part of medical education. Co-creating the framework proved vital to inclusion of learner voices.
A just appraisal: Co-creating a new health equity framework with learners through journal club to evaluate the literature
Journal of General Internal Medicine [Epub 2025 Aug 4]. doi: 10.1007/s11606-025-09774-2.