Hi Everyone,
Tomorrow, December 16 at 10:00 the Michigan Health Literacy Collaborative meeting will be held on Webex. Gwen Unzicker, who is the new medical director at the Ottawa Health Department will be our speaker. She will talk about some of her ideas on health literacy and health equity for her new position. However, she is also very interested in hearing ideas from others in ways to to focus on these important elements in her work. So, the meeting will be very much a two-way discussion.
About Dr. Gwen Unzicker
After completing medical school at Southern Illinois University in 2005 and
Family Medicine residency at Grand Rapids Family Medicine Residency in
2008, I practiced outpatient primary care in multiple clinical settings, including
a Community Health Center for uninsured and under-insured patients, a
Family Medicine Residency Health Center (where I also served as a core
faculty member), and an employer-based primary care clinic. When, as a new
faculty member at my residency alma mater, I somewhat serendipitously
inherited the role of developing a Health Literacy curriculum, I began to spend
more time with others working in health literacy and public health, and this
helped to solidify the idea that the care of the whole patient meant caring for them as members of the
community, and that a large part of that involves helping the entire community obtain and understand the
information they need to make informed decisions about their own health, and how those decisions affect other
members of the community. Never has this need been clearer or more urgent than during the COVID-19
pandemic, and the need will continue and likely increase in the months and years to come, as individuals and
communities will be facing the physical, mental, and emotional toll that the pandemic has taken on all of us.
Having recently transitioned from my position as a primary care physician to a new role as medical director of a
county health department, I have found that though my “patient” is now the community, the team is now
comprised of multiple departments, and the communication is to a wider audience, that goal is still the same, on
an individual and collective level. I will be starting an MPH program (location to be determined) next year, and
will also be participating in the Health Equity Awakened Leadership Institute starting in January 2022. I am
excited to discuss making health literacy a central part of everything we do as we strive to help maintain and
improve the health of our community!
About Dr. Gwen Unzicker
After completing medical school at Southern Illinois University in 2005 and
Family Medicine residency at Grand Rapids Family Medicine Residency in
2008, I practiced outpatient primary care in multiple clinical settings, including
a Community Health Center for uninsured and under-insured patients, a
Family Medicine Residency Health Center (where I also served as a core
faculty member), and an employer-based primary care clinic. When, as a new
faculty member at my residency alma mater, I somewhat serendipitously
inherited the role of developing a Health Literacy curriculum, I began to spend
more time with others working in health literacy and public health, and this
helped to solidify the idea that the care of the whole patient meant caring for them as members of the
community, and that a large part of that involves helping the entire community obtain and understand the
information they need to make informed decisions about their own health, and how those decisions affect other
members of the community. Never has this need been clearer or more urgent than during the COVID-19
pandemic, and the need will continue and likely increase in the months and years to come, as individuals and
communities will be facing the physical, mental, and emotional toll that the pandemic has taken on all of us.
Having recently transitioned from my position as a primary care physician to a new role as medical director of a
county health department, I have found that though my “patient” is now the community, the team is now
comprised of multiple departments, and the communication is to a wider audience, that goal is still the same, on
an individual and collective level. I will be starting an MPH program (location to be determined) next year, and
will also be participating in the Health Equity Awakened Leadership Institute starting in January 2022. I am
excited to discuss making health literacy a central part of everything we do as we strive to help maintain and
improve the health of our community!
Please join us.
Hope to see you there,
Dori