Social Medicine Archives

The annual Dean’s Performance Awards honor employees whose work helps the UNC School of Medicine achieve its vision of becoming the nation’s leading public school of medicine.

In the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), Oberlander tackles these policy issues in a new Perspective piece titled “Health Care Reform and the 2024 U.S. Elections — Low Visibility, High Stakes.” Oberlander is a professor and chair in UNC’s Department of Social Medicine and a professor of health policy and management at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Through an analysis of 500+ FDA-authorized AI medical devices, Sammy Chouffani El Fassi, a MD candidate at the UNC School of Medicine and researcher at Duke Heart Center, and Gail E. Henderson, PhD, professor of social medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill, discovered a lack of published clinical validation data for many authorized devices and established a standard for medical AI validation.

To raise awareness and assist couples with job searches, UNC-Chapel Hill researchers launched an evidence-based tool showing how research-intensive institutions rank in partner hiring – providing insights on where they may be excelling and where they may be deficient. Jill Fisher, PhD, professor of social medicine at the UNC School of Medicine, co-led the project.

Catalina Berenblum Tobi, a 4th-year medical student, and Mara Buchbinder, PhD, professor and vice chair of social medicine, published qualitative research outlining how metaphors used when explaining inflammatory bowel disease affect young patients’ perceptions of illness and healing.

Mara Buchbinder, PhD, professor of social medicine, and colleagues at the UNC School of Medicine and Harvard University surveyed obstetrician-gynecologists in 13 states with functional abortion bans to document the impacts on healthcare staff.

The project will focus on workflows to increase the timeliness and comprehensiveness of postpartum care, a virtual maternal-fetal medicine specialty consultation service including e-consult and telehealth capability for women with high-risk conditions served at rural community health centers, and support for community doula training and the development of a community doula collaborative in rural Chatham County.

Springer recently released "Chronic Illness Care, Principles and Practice," edited by UNC Family Medicine's Timothy P. Daaleman, DO, MPH, and Margaret R. Helton, MD. Faculty members in the Department of Family Medicine, faculty across the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, and other national and international experts wrote the textbook.

Whole Community Connection invites applications from existing community-academic partnerships advancing health and well-being in Edgecombe or Robeson County. Selected teams participate in leadership development and receive funding to implement community-led solutions. The call for applications closes Sept. 15.

Narges Farahi, MD, MPH, of UNC Family Medicine is PI for a grant to develop and test a holistic polycystic ovary syndrome management program within a federally qualified health center. An interdisciplinary group of co-investigators from UNC OB-GYN, UNC School of Social Work, Piedmont Health, GWU and the Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health are co-PIs.

WCC supports cohorts of leaders to advance health equity in rural North Carolina by increasing local power to focus on priorities by and at the community level and co-creating a model of relationship centered engagement.

The STEPPS project is led by Mara Buchbinder, professor and vice chair in the UNC Department of Social Medicine.

Category: Social Medicine

2025 Dean’s Performance Award Winners Announced

What’s at stake for health care reform in the US election?

Researchers Highlight Need for Published Validation Data as Artificial Intelligence is Thrust into Patient Care

Do Institutions Support Partner Hiring? A New Tool Ranks Universities

Medical Student and Professor with Inflammatory Bowel Disease Join Forces to Help Pediatricians Understand the Power of Words

Researchers Document Health Provider Impacts from Post-Dobbs Abortion Bans

Partnership with Piedmont Health Services Aims to Address Maternal Mortality Crisis

UNC Department of Family Medicine Authors Second Edition of Chronic Illness Care Textbook

Applications Open for Whole Community Connection Community-Academic Partnerships

UNC Team Partnering to Navigate Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Whole Community Connection Awards Rural Community-Academic Partnerships

New Recommendations Address Crisis of Physician Stress