Providing ADEPT-CARE to Patients with Disabilities: A Student-Created, Novel Teaching Tool
Speaker
Lydia Smeltz is a fourth-year medical student at Penn State College of Medicine, originally from Harrisburg, PA. She graduated from Duke University in December 2020. She plans to graduate from Penn State COM in 2025 and pursue a PM&R residency. Her research focuses on disability health and medical education. She led a team of students to create and publish ADEPT-CARE, a teaching tool for performing a comprehensive history and physical exam for patients with disabilities. She also started and runs the PA Revs All Starz field hockey program, the second adaptive field hockey team in the entire country. Lydia wishes to acknowledge that she stands on the shoulders of her colleagues, athletes, and friends with disabilities and that her allyship is impactful because of what she has learned from those around her.
Disclosure: Ms. Smeltz has no relevant financial relationships to report.
Course Description
We will describe how a team of medical students, some of whom live with disabilities, from across the country collaborated to create ADEPT-CARE, a mnemonic for performing a comprehensive history and physical exam for patients with disabilities. We will provide details for the implementation of ADEPT-CARE and how we scaled up this work to reach an audience of thousands of patient-facing staff members and hundreds of medical and physician assistant students through collaboration and research. We will discuss research findings, next steps, and how to bring ADEPT-CARE to your workplace.
Educational Objectives
- Describe the steps of the ADEPT-CARE protocol
- Appreciate the value of collaboration and research for scaling up and sustaining advocacy.
- Identify ways to collaborate with people with disabilities for disability health-focused initiatives and education.