Health Disparities and Improving Diversity in Healthcare Force
Dr. Behnoosh Afghani, Clinical Professor has been actively involved in promoting diversity in health care and research by creating a variety of pipeline programs. She has raised awareness of students about health disparities by getting them involved in educational and research projects focused on health inequities. More recently she has been involved at the national level to develop strategies that address gender and ethnic disparities in the workplace.
Education:
- As the director of the Health and Science Enrichment Programs from 2010 to 2019, Dr. Afghani was very active in creating a pipeline program with a focus on stimulating the interest of women and minority groups in medicine. Her work was published in an article in Academic Medicine Journal in 2013: Afghani B, Santos R, Angulo M, Muratori W. A Novel Enrichment Program Using Cascading Mentorship to Increase Diversity in the Health Care Professions. Acad Med 88(9), 1232-8.
- Dr. Afghani has stimulated the interest of numerous students in healthcare through research programs. The results of her work on creating a diverse pipeline were recently accepted for presentation at the national American Academy of Pediatrics in October of 2020: “A Novel Pipeline Program: A Path towards Diversity and Eliminating Health Disparities”
- For the past 10 years, Dr. Afghani has held numerous workshops for premedical, medical students, and residents on raising the importance of cultural competency, health disparities, and implicit bias.
Research:
- As the creator and director of the Online Research Program, she has raised awareness of numerous premedical and medical students about health disparities by getting them involved in research focusing on scholarly projects, such as disparities in the care of patients with asthma, diabetic retinopathy, and telehealth, as well as implicit bias, faced minority and underserved populations.
- More recently, as the director of the UCI-CHOC Pediatric Residency Service, Teaching, Advocacy and Research (STAR) Program founded by Dr. Candice Taylor Lucas, Dr. Behnoosh Afghani provides support for pediatric residents who are passionate about promoting health equity by facilitating research projects that address regional health disparities for children and families in Orange County and/or the city of Long Beach. (Funding support: Physicians for a Healthy California, CalMedForce GME Grant)
- Dr. Afghani is the principal investigator for a research project to study the “Barriers to Childhood Vaccinations during COVID-19 with a Focus on Health Disparities”.
National Level Involvement:
Dr. Afghani was elected to the AAP Section on Hospitalist Medicine, Women in Pediatric Hospitalist Medicine Committee in July 2020. As part of this committee, her goal is to promote gender equity by examining workplace challenges faced by women from different ethnic groups. She will work with national leaders to develop strategies to address these disparities.
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