Engaging Stakeholders for Institutional Self-Reflection to Advance Health Equity

Abstract

There has been growth of health inequities in health status and access to healthcare in the last century. The discrepancy in health needs to be restored by reemphasizing the importance of social accountability in health professions education. Introducing and promoting social accountability to health professions education institutions would provide double benefit as they will train and graduate healthcare professionals and operate as institutions with great consideration of social accountability and social determinants of health. The Institutional Self-Assessment of Social Accountability Tool (ISAT) has been designed and used to assist academic health sciences institutions in understanding their social accountability level and advances. The tool was developed as a collaborative initiative by the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO-WHO). It brought together experts from organizations that developed tools to assess social accountability: the Training for Health Equity Network (THEnet), AMEE ASPIRE Awards, and the Beyond Flexner Alliance, now the Social Mission Alliance. Since 2021, a total of 10 institutions from countries in the North America, Latin America, Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, and South Asia have completed the assessment and benefit from the process for their institution’s social accountability growth. Nevertheless, there have been challenges in assessing institutional social accountability, including stakeholder engagement and dissenting opinions on the definition of social accountability. This paper is an attempt to reintroduce the importance of social accountability through stakeholder engagement and share some reflection on the use of ISAT from the past 2 years, which later will provide some suggestions for academic health institutions to engage in self-reflection and assessment of their social accountability advancements.