Pediatric resident promotes health equity

An abstract by UC Davis Children’s Hospital pediatric resident Jess Huang has been accepted as a poster presentation at this month’s Academy of Communication in Healthcare (ACH)’s Healthcare Communication Virtual Research Forum.

“Promoting Health Equity of Dari and Pashto-speaking Children by Adapting Established Literacy Resources” demonstrates how Huang provided books written in the Pashto and Dari languages to refugee children who sought care at the Sacramento County Health Center (SCHC), where UC Davis pediatric residents do their clinical rotations. A Children’s Miracle Network grant funded the purchase of the books.

“One-third of the non-English speaking children seen at the SCHC are from Dari and Pashto-speaking families, but they are excluded from Reach Out and Read programs because materials available are only in English and Spanish,” Huang said. “Once my mentor Erik Fernandez y Garcia and I saw this disparity, we created a solution to address it.”

Huang will also be speaking at the ACH Healthcare Communication Virtual Research Forum about quality improvement techniques used to implement the process.