CHICAGO — The American Medical Association (AMA) today announced a collaboration with the University of Colorado Anschutz on a new educational video series to help physicians and medical students provide high-quality, patient-centered care for people with disabilities.
The Caring for People with Disabilities Series is free and available on AMA Ed Hub™, AMA’s online learning platform. The series gives health care professionals practical guidance, real-world strategies, and proven tools to meet the unique needs of patients with diverse disabilities. By addressing common barriers in clinical practice, the AMA aims to advance accessible, inclusive medical care and improve health outcomes for all people—including patients with physical, sensory, or cognitive disabilities.
“The AMA and physicians everywhere want all patients to receive the best possible care—and that includes patients with disabilities,” said AMA President Bobby Mukkamala, MD. “This new video series addresses that challenge directly, and gives physicians and medical students practical tools to better understand their patients’ needs and improve access to care.”
The video series offers free opportunities to earn continuing medical education (CME) credit. Each module in the series is under 30 minutes and accompanied by searchable transcripts. The first five modules in the series are available now and include:
- Foundational Concepts: Explains key disability models, the history and impact of disability rights and laws, and defines disability and ableism.
- Foundations of Clinical Care: Offers practical ways to take a full patient history, adapt the physical exam, and coordinate care with rehab, specialty, and social services to improve outcomes.
- Medical Decision-Making: Provides strategies to support decision-making for people with disabilities, including using supported decision-making, working with proxies and guardians, and adapting decisions after disability or with aging.
- Accommodations and Accessibility in Health Care: Covers the range of patient accommodations, outlines what physicians and health systems must provide by law, and offers practical ways to build these supports into everyday care.
- Effective Communication: Explains legal requirements and proven ways to communicate with patients who have communication-related disabilities, including how to make written materials accessible.
Additional modules will be added to the series this year.
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About the American Medical Association
The American Medical Association is the physicians’ powerful ally in patient care. As the only medical association that convenes 190+ state and specialty medical societies and other critical stakeholders, the AMA represents physicians with a unified voice to all key players in health care. The AMA leverages its strength by removing the obstacles that interfere with patient care, leading the charge to prevent chronic disease and confront public health crises and, driving the future of medicine to tackle the biggest challenges in health care.
