Articles about Health Care Inequities, Bias, and Trust are Honored

Winners of the 13^th annual John A. Benson Jr., MD Professionalism Article Prize announced by the ABIM Foundation

Portraits of myriad health care inequities are displayed in articles honored today by the ABIM Foundation as it announces the winners of its 13^th annual John A. Benson Jr., MD Professionalism Article Prize.

The prize recognizes the best journal articles that addressed medical professionalism in 2022, focusing on layers of disparities that continue to plague the medical profession and the patients who suffer their consequences.

“These articles demonstrate that health inequities, racial disparities, and discrimination are a continuing scourge on both the medical profession and society in general,” said Richard J. Baron, MD, president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine and ABIM Foundation. “Addressing racism, diversifying the medical workforce, and providing accommodations for patients with disabilities are imperative to bringing positive change.”

Over the past 12 years, nearly 800 articles have been considered for the prize, and 50 have received the award.

First-person narrative winner:

• Confronting Racism In Pediatric Care, Benjamin Danielson, MD. Health Affairs (November 2022). A pediatrician portrays the need to address racism in health care by sharing his personal experience with a patient who fell victim to the judgement of the care teams that were supposed to help her.

Research winners:

• I Am Not The Doctor For You’: Physicians’ Attitudes About Caring For People With Disabilities, Tara Lagu, MD, MPH; Carol Haywood, PhD; Kimberly Reimold, MD; Christine DeJong, MD; Robin Walker Sterling, LLM, JD; Lisa I. Iezzoni, MD, MSc. Health Affairs (October 2022). As part of a larger mixed-methods study, researchers explored community primary care physicians’ and specialist physicians’ perspectives on caring for people with disabilities. Their findings suggest an urgent need to better understand and address clinician- and system-level barriers to care for people with disabilities.
• Burnout and Perception of Medical School Learning Environments Among Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Medical Students, Caitlin R. Ryus, MD, MPH; Elizabeth A. Samuels, MD, MPH, MHS; Ambrose H. Wong, MD, MSEd, MHS; Katherine A. Hill; Stephen Huot, MD, PhD; Dowin Boatright, MD, MBA, MHS. JAMA (April 2022). In this cross-sectional study, researchers found that sexual minority students had less favorable perceptions of the medical school learning environment than heterosexual students. Their findings suggest that addressing this issue could help mitigate burnout and diversify the medical workforce.
• Marginalized Identities, Mistreatment, Discrimination, and Burnout Among US Medical Students: Cross Sectional Survey and Retrospective Cohort Study, Bethelehem G. Teshome, MPH; Mayur M. Desai, PhD, MPH; Cary P. Gross, MD; Katherine A. Hill; Fangyong Li, MS, MPH; Elizabeth A. Samuels, MD, MPH, MHS; Ambrose H. Wong, DM, MSEd, MHS; Yunshan Xu, MS; Dowin H. Boatright, MD, MBA, MHS. The BMJ (March 2022). This study applies an intersectional approach to examine the association between student identity across multiple dimensions of marginalization and the experience of mistreatment and discrimination in the medical school learning environment.

About the Award

Created in 2011 to celebrate and encourage outstanding contributions to the literature on medical professionalism, in 2015 the ABIM Foundation named the article prize in honor of American Board of Internal Medicine and ABIM Foundation President Emeritus John A. Benson Jr., MD. For more than two decades, Dr. Benson taught medical students at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he also worked to foster inter-professional education, and at Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, where he served at the Center for Ethics in Health Care. He has received several honors for his work in medical education and clinical medicine and has written extensively about professionalism.

Articles published in English language, peer-reviewed journals between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022 (online or in print), were eligible for the prize. A committee of health care leaders selected winners based on clarity of writing, thoroughness, methodology and contributions to the field and society. Members of the selection committee included:

• Mercy Adetoye, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Michigan Health
• John A. Benson Jr., MD, President Emeritus, American Board of Internal Medicine and ABIM Foundation
• Joyce Dubow, MUP, Consumer/Patient Advocate
• Richard Frankel, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Geriatrics, Senior Scientist, Regenstrief Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine
• Ellen M. Friedman, MD, FACS, FAAP, Professor, Otolaryngology, Director, Center for Professionalism in Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine
• Hayley Goldbach, MD, Assistant Professor of Dermatology, Clinician Educator, Brown Dermatology
• Lorna Lynn, MD, Vice President, Medical Education Research, American Board of Internal Medicine

• Marlise Pierre-Wright, MD, MPA, Resident Physician- Internal Medicine, Northwestern Memorial Hospital

• Bernard M. Rosof, MD, MACP, Chief Executive Officer of Quality in Healthcare Advisory Group, LLC
• Daniel Wolfson, MHSA, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, ABIM Foundation

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About the ABIM Foundation

The ABIM Foundation’s mission is to advance medical professionalism to improve the health care system by collaborating with physicians and physician leaders, medical trainees, health care delivery systems, payers, policymakers, consumer organizations and patients to foster a shared understanding of professionalism and how they can adopt the tenets of professionalism in practice. To learn more about the ABIM Foundation, visit www.abimfoundation.org, connect on LinkedIn or follow on Twitter.

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