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The fourth annual summer research summit organized by the Center of Excellence (COE) in Health Equity, Training and Research, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) was held on May 20, 2021. The theme of this year’s summit was ‘Strengthening Our Commitment to Racial and Social Justice to Improve Public Health.’ Given the ongoing pandemic, the summit was conducted virtually through digital platforms. This program was intended for both BCM and external audiences interested in advancing health equity, diversity and inclusion in healthcare among healthcare providers and trainees, biomedical scientists, social workers, nurses, individuals involved in talent acquisition and development such as hiring managers (HR professionals), supervisors, college and hospital affiliate leadership and administrators, as well as diversity and inclusion excellence practitioners. We had attendees from all regions of the United States, India, Pakistan and the Demographic Republic of the Congo. The content in this Book of Abstracts encapsulates a summary of the research efforts by the BCM COE scholars (which includes post-baccalaureate students, medical students, clinical fellows and junior faculty from BCM) as well as the external summit participants. The range of topics in this year’s summit was quite diverse encompassing disparities in relation to maternal and child health (MCH), immigrant heath, cancers, vaccination uptakes and COVID-19 infections. Various solutions were ardently presented to address these disparities including community engagement and partnerships, improvement in health literacy and development of novel technologies and therapeutics. With this summit, BCM continues to build on its long history of educational outreach initiatives to promote diversity in medicine by focusing on programs aimed at increasing the number of diverse and highly qualified medical professionals ready to introduce effective and innovative approaches to reduce or eliminate health disparities. These programs will improve information resources, clinical education, curricula, research and cultural competence as they relate to minority health issues and social determinants of health. The summit received very positive response in terms of zealous participation and outstanding evaluations; and overall, it was a great success. Copyright © 2021 Lopez et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0.

Introduction Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with negative mental and physical health outcomes and predictive of higher sociodemographic risk. Introducing ACEs into undergraduate medical education is key to prevention, early recognition, and intervention. Methods In a 1-hour lecture, held live and viewed online, we delivered a condensed introduction to ACEs to first-year medical students. Live-classroom participants completed pre-/postsession questionnaires self-assessing their knowledge of 10 content areas on a 5-point Likert scale. We analyzed quantitative data to determine mean scores and differences. We synthesized qualitative data obtained from feedback. Results One hundred twenty-four students, including 32 live-classroom attendees and 92 online viewers, participated in this activity. Self-assessment scores increased in all content areas measured, with a mean increase of 1.5 (p < .0001). The most significant increases occurred in identifying household dysfunction as ACEs (increase of 2.3), calculating an ACE score (increase of 2.2), differentiating between child abuse acts of commission and omission (increase of 1.9), describing resilience (increase of 1.7), and recognizing the link between ACEs and chronic medical conditions (increase of 1.4). Participants found the lecture informative, appreciating the use of the case illustrating how ACEs impact health and an interactive slide on the risks conferred by cumulative ACEs. Learners welcomed the positive message of resilience. Discussion Introducing ACEs in medical student education is feasible. Educating the next generation of health providers on ACEs while highlighting prevention and resilience and teaching trauma-informed care is crucial. This lecture can be readily incorporated into medical student curricula.