Dear AJPM Reader,
 
This past year and a half during the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored, perhaps as never before, the importance of physician training in public health and preventive medicine. Indeed, AJPM regularly publishes research and commentary on medical school and physician training, including two articles in our May 2021 issue: "Addiction Medicine After COVID-19: The Imperative of a Trained Workforce" and "Exposure to Weight Management Counseling Among Students at 8 U.S. Medical Schools.”

More broadly, however, the pandemic has shown that the social determinants of health have an important place in medical school curricula. The disparities in COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality are stark reminders that a person's race, ethnicity, place of residence, occupation, educational and linguistic background, and other social characteristics play a major role in their health outcomes. The growing recognition of the impact of upstream factors on health has strengthened the push already underway to incorporate social determinants of health modules into the education of current and future doctors. 

AJPM has published several articles touching on this topic in recent years, including "Revolutionized Public Health Teaching to Equip Medical Students for 21st Century Practice" and "Community-Engaged Lifestyle Medicine: Building Health Equity Through Preventive Medicine Residency Training." The training doctors receive in medical school and residency has a major impact on their future practice, including in public health and preventive medicine. As such, the AJPM Editors welcome the submission of further research and commentary on the social determinants of health in physician training.

We hope you find our Medical School/Physician Training collection, as well as our May 2021 articles, to be timely, topical and informative.

Yours in prevention and health,