Integrating Social Determinants of Health in Medical Education: Shifting Future Physicians to Population Health-Centric Thinking and Practice

Contemporary medical education (ME) curricula are vastly devoid of affirmative integration of the social determinants of health (SDH) despite growing evidence of implications for future physicians' practice and influence on population health outcomes. Where incorporated, several programs still lack a population health-centric approach in curriculum design. Most publications focus on the academic implications from SDH integration in curricula. Our work extends to a more global perspective, highlighting the impacts of disparities in the integration of SDH on physicians' readiness and competence to influence population health outcomes. We highlight not just the inequitable integration across countries and ME programs, but also the significance for future physicians' thinking and approach to practice. From our work, we expect academic administrators to become more aware of the value of population-centric content in ME to address the global high burden of preventable diseases. We also hope to raise awareness among prospective students about the health needs of societies, driven by upstream determinants, and how such needs may reflect downward to patients' conditions. We conclude that affirmative SDH integration in ME is a necessary step to realigning medical practice for better population health outcomes, particularly in developing countries, where poorer health outcomes and socioeconomic conditions are closely interrelated. Our findings underscore the need for improving instructional design and content with a greater focus on global health impact, integrating the community as a learning space and source of co-educators, and realigning institutional policies to enable smoother SDH integration in curricula.