Dear Colleagues,
Well, 2025 has certainly been a challenging year in so many ways. Our most vulnerable patient populations, including low-income individuals, immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, seem to have been particularly hard hit by changes in public policies. Despite this, Yale GIM faculty, trainees, and staff have remained focused on our mission statement: “Yale GIM: Compassionate high-quality care, inspired education & world-class research in an inclusive culture.”
Our care for vulnerable populations has always been integral to our core clinical, educational, and research missions. Examples of this are everywhere. As noted in the October Yale GIM News, Kate McKenzie’s receipt of an award from Physicians for Human Rights was a wonderful recognition of this work – in this case on the behalf of asylum seekers. In addition, our research faculty’s work with health equity and health policy, along with studies examining ways to improve outcomes in patients suffering from cancer, addiction, and other chronic diseases are yet other examples of this work. All of these efforts are brought front and center to our trainees in ways that inform them of its importance.
This month’s Yale GIM News highlights several new examples of our Section’s efforts of these efforts. For example, Cary Gross and his colleagues published a paper in JAMA Network Open which explored the cancer care disparities between the general population and those who have experienced incarceration. Jen Miller’s research showed that while lower income countries often participate in studies of new drugs, those same countries rarely benefit from the development of these medications. Finally, Ilana Richman is co-leading a new partnership between Yale School of Medicine and the New Haven community through the Community Health Equity Accelerator to close gaps in colon cancer screening and follow-up care.
Day in and day out we see many, many examples of our faculty and staff tending to the needs of the most vulnerable patients in our community in outpatient and inpatient settings at both the Yale campus and at the VA. BRAVO!
As we near year’s end, we enjoy the holiday season with our family and friends. Happy holidays to all and to all a good new year!
Patrick
Patrick G. O'Connor, MD, MPH
Dan Adams and Amanda Adams Professor of General Medicine
Chief, Yale General Internal Medicine
Head of Advisory House, Yan House
Yale School of Medicine