Creating a Pathway to Improve Health in Indigenous Communities
Indigenous people suffer higher rates of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses and have shorter average life expectancies than the general population.
That is why the College of Human Medicine created the Indigenous Pathway program, an effort to reduce those health disparities by encouraging more medical students to provide care for tribal members.
“There is a need,” said Elizabeth Guerrero Lyons, EdD, associate director of the college’s Leadership in Rural Medicine program, “and we at the College of Human Medicine want to help meet that need.”
The college started the Indigenous Pathway in 2022 for all medical students. The pathway is designed to give Indigenous students the opportunity to obtain medical degrees, as well as expose nonindigenous students to the medical needs of Native Americans.
“It is essential to emphasize that this initiative is designed for all students, both Indigenous and non-indigenous,” Lyons said. “For those who are not Indigenous, it is particularly important to engage early in training that fosters an understanding of Indigenous communities. This approach not only enhances cultural familiarity but also promotes a sense of cultural humility.”
Under the program, third- and fourth-year medical students can participate in a two-week Indigenous medicine elective. Students who choose that elective work with medical professionals at clinics operated by the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians near Petoskey and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in Baraga.
First-year students also can sign up for a two-week immersion in Indigenous medicine, and college officials hope to expand the Pathway through all four years of medical school.
The college also formed an Early Assurance Program with Bay Mills Community College, founded and operated by the Bay Mills Indian Community, to provide an opportunity for its students to attend the College of Human Medicine.
The College of Human Medicine offers two scholarships to support Indigenous medical students. The Dr. Harry D. Brickley Endowed Scholarship in Human Medicine was created with a $100,000 gift from the retired surgeon, and the Mashkiki Endowed Scholarship in Human Medicine, provides an additional a $100,000 in matching endowment scholarship funds. Mashkiki is the Ojibwe term for medicine.
Michigan is home to 12 federally recognized tribes and an estimated 200,000 tribal members, yet fewer than 1 percent of the nearly 44,000 doctors licensed in the state are American Indians/Alaska Natives.
Encouraging young tribal members to consider medical careers is vital, Lyons said.
“It’s important because, like with many underserved populations, patients want to see physicians who look like them,” she said. “Trust is huge, and so is respect.”
“My passion always has been in working with medically underserved populations, particularly Indigenous people,” she added.
Many potential students come from disadvantaged families and likely never have considered a medical career, she said.
“Ultimately our goal in the Indigenous Pathway program is to get the word out that going to medical school is a possibility,” Lyons said, “and that going to college in general is a possibility.”