In September, Erica Johnson took a group of internal medicine residents to an underserved community only 5 miles down the road from their state-of-the-art clinics.
That visit to Turner Station, like others led by Johnson, aimed to bridge the gap between Johns Hopkins health care professionals and the communities they serve.
“It is crucial for our resident physicians to be deeply rooted in the communities they serve,” Johnson told members of the historic African American community, adding, “This visit is just one of many steps towards building a more inclusive and empathetic health care system.”
As director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center since 2015, Johnson has expanded the mission of the first-year Foundations of Clinical Excellence course, thanks to “transformative” support as a CIM Mary Gallo Scholar.
Now, as well as offering instruction in specific clinical skills and “relationship-centered care,” the two-week course helps trainees better understand the health of their patients by directly observing how they live and listening to their concerns. Johnson says the experience helps young doctors learn how to form identities as physician citizens and leaders.
“They’re seeing the impact of the breakdown of trust between many communities and health care organizations, and they see themselves as actors in helping to rebuild that trust,” says Johnson, who is also a co-director of Medicine for the Greater Good.
In addition, as associate vice chair for diversity, equity and inclusion in the Department of Medicine, she has improved the percentage of under-represented minority interns and residents at Bayview from 9% in 2017 to 41% in 2018. Since then, it has ranged from 22% to 38% annually. Her work earned the 2019 award in excellence from the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.
Johnson served 11 years as a medical corps officer in the U.S. Army and researched areas such as combat trauma and deployment diseases control. She says becoming a CIM Mary Gallo Scholar “happened at a really pivotal time in my career and helped change its direction pretty dramatically.
“CIM gives us the opportunity to think strategically about the big ideas in health care and about how Hopkins can act within them to benefit the public,” she says. “It helps us think about how we can operationalize that mission in ways that would be difficult in a typical academic environment.”
Don Willett October 30th, 2024
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CIM Director David Hellmann still remembers the joy that lit the face of the high school senior. He had just presented her with a copy of the rheumatology textbook he had co-edited. Excitedly, she asked if he would pose for a photo with her holding the book. As they positioned themselves to say “Cheese!”, she shared why she wanted a photo: This was the first time in her life anyone had ever given her a book.
The young student, who had attended one of Baltimore City’s most disadvantaged public high schools, would go on to the University of Pennsylvania and later complete her medical degree at Penn’s school of medicine. What inspired her path to academic accomplishment? A program known as MERIT — the Medical Education Resources Initiative for Teens Health Leadership Academy — which received early support from the Center for Innovative Medicine.
Launched in 2010, MERIT provides Baltimore students from underrepresented backgrounds a holistic support system, beginning in their sophomore year of high school, which is aimed at preparing them to become health professionals. MERIT scholars take advanced academic classes on Saturdays, work in hospitals and labs during paid internships, and receive long-term college and career mentoring.
Notably, 100% of the students who have completed the MERIT program have been accepted to college — at schools both near (Johns Hopkins, McDaniel College, UMBC) and far (Stanford, University of North Carolina). They have financed their college education by attracting millions of dollars in scholarships.
Don Willett October 30th, 2024
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