This year, our GW Center of Excellence successfully delivered an IPE event on January 27, 2023, which was developed in conjunction with Health Policy professors, Dr. Zoe Beckerman, and Dr. Anne Markus, who are part of our Center faculty, with support from two student graduate student assistants, Sydney Durrah and Kathryn Fleisher.
The topic for the IPE event was the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade decision and the impacts that decision may have on child and maternal health outcomes at the state level. The goal was to collaboratively raise questions and identify policy solutions to the possible short- and long-term health implications of various state-level changes in abortion access and reproductive rights in the wake of the 2022 Dobbs decision.
43 students participated and showcased a variation of backgrounds. Students from Maternal and Child Health, Health Policy, Epidemiology, Global Health, Physician Assistant program, Communications and Marketing, the Law School, and the Health Services and Management program were represented. Dr. Amita Vyas and Dr. Wanda Nicholson gave opening remarks.
Students were assigned to one of seven states upon arrival: Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, or Washington. Students researched their assigned state and the existing information on Medicaid expansion, abortion access and legality, maternal and infant mortality reports, state maternal wellness report cards, rural health overviews, contraceptive access information, and early childhood care overviews.
Students were then asked to identify and build arguments for 3-4 policy recommendations specific to their assigned state that would benefit (i.e. lead to better health outcomes for) the person they were assigned in their vignette. Throughout the recommendation making process, students were instructed to center health equity (both in access and outcome), racial, class, and gender justice, and the sustainability of proposed solutions in their policy proposal.
Congratulations to all who put so much work into creating a great experience for our students!