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Pedi POWER

Pedi Power Group Photo

What We Do

PediPOWER Circle what we do

Clinical Practice

  • Data dashboard in development to look at health metrics and racial disparities
  • Standardizing protocols regarding neonatal substance testing
  • Promote bilingual certification for health care providers

Community Advocacy

  • Successfully advocated to change the building name from VHC Bascom to VHC San Jose; the Bascom family had come to the area in 1849 and had an association with slave ownership. Read about it here
  • Promote voter registration through Vot-ER, a non-profit, non-partisan national organization
  • Engage in mentoring to encourage youth from diverse backgrounds to consider careers in medicine
  • Collaboration with community agencies

Patient Education

  • Develop materials for patients and parents about race, diversity, and racism
  • Videos about vaccination
  • Custom artwork for patient stickers and clinic posters to encourage vaccination
Sticker and Poster
  • Book lists to celebrate Black History Month

Research

  • First department wide survey of pediatric healthcare providers about anti-racism and health equity related topics in 2022

POWER Book Club

POWER Book Club began in August 2020 by Dr. Jenni Djafari, Dr. Iliana Harrysson, Dr. Amna Khan, and Dr. Anat Lotan. Their vision is to have a safe virtual space to discuss books that centered on anti-racism and highlighted historically marginalized voices. Books are chosen by the book club committee with input by attendees. The group meets virtually every two months, often on a Sunday evening.

Please contact us if you would like more information about POWER Book Club.

Here is a list of the books that have been read and discussed.

  • How to be an Antiracist, by Ibram. X. Kendi
  • Well Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves, by Glory Edim
  • Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care, by Dayna Bowen Matthew
  • The Undocumented Americans, by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
  • Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas, by Roberto Lovato
  • This Close to Okay: A Novel, by Leesa Cross-Smith
  • Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, by Harriet A. Washington
  • The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella and Stories, by Danielle Evans
  • Heart Berries, by Terese Marie Mailhot
  • The Firekeepers Daughter, by Angeline Boulley
  • How the Other Half Eat: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America, by Priya Fielding-Singh
  • The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir, by Thi Bui
  • We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story, by Simu Liu
  • Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City, by Andrea Elliot
  • Nightcrawling, by Leila Mottley
  • The Seedkeeper, by Diane Wilson
  • Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson
  • The Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
  • True Biz, by Sara Nović
  • Under The Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation, by Linda Villarosa
  • Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of an Ordinary Life on the Body in an Unjust Society, by Arline T. Geronimus

Staff Education

  • Book club for SCVH staff that meets every other month
  • Newsletter for SCVH staff: October 2022
  • Emails about topical health concerns and how they are related to racial and health equity, such as gun violence prevention, access to treatment for COVID infection, and access to comprehensive reproductive care
  • Collaboration with SVCH Medical Library to highlight important articles and scholarly work about race and medicine
  • Host speakers for Pediatrics Grand Rounds on topics related to anti-racism and medicine
  • Teaching sessions for medical students and pediatric residents that focus on anti-racism in medicine
  • Celebration of Black Maternal Health Week in April with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
  • First department wide CME educational conference with an anti-racism focus, May 2022

Workforce Development

  • Coordination with staff Wellness Task Force
  • Staff education and support around the Academic Affiliation program at Stanford
  • Focus on recruiting, hiring, mentoring, and retaining diverse staff members
  • Advocate for transparency when recruiting staff for workplace opportunities