About
The University of Saskatchewan (USask), College of Medicine holds social accountability as a guiding philosophy and shared responsibility. We listen to, and engage with, diverse communities across Saskatchewan to better understand the health needs they face, including underserved and marginalized communities.
To address these needs, the Division of Social Accountability (DSA) collaborates across the college on education, research, and service initiatives and improvements. These initiatives include student-led advocacy projects, curriculum review and revision, policy review and development, equitable support programs for admissions, community-led research projects, educational opportunities focused on identified health needs, and more.
The social accountability efforts of the DSA are rooted in work with community, bridging community knowledge with that of health professionals and administrators, governments, faculty, students, and residents. With a focus on anti-oppression, community engagement, and equity, the DSA aims to create contextualized and timely responses within academic medicine to issues right here in Saskatchewan. The DSA recognizes the interconnectedness of local health inequities with the broader global community, the collective impacts or social and structural determinants, and the responsibility to advocate for and support meaningful change.
Priority Health Concerns
"Medical schools have the obligation to direct their education, research and service activities towards addressing the priority health concerns of the community, region and/or nation they have a mandate to serve. The priority health concerns are to be identified jointly by governments, healthcare organizations, health professionals and the public" (WHO, 1995).
Centering the activities of academic medicine around the pressing social issues that have health implcations in Saskatchewan enables the College of Medicine, its faculty, learners, and graduates to respond directly to the health needs of the communities they serve now and into the future.
From August 2023 to August 2024, the DSA carried out community consultations, with both in-person and online opportunities for engagement. Ten priority health concerns in Saskatchewan were identified and reinforced by data from health care organizations and governments.
These concerns reflect health system data and well-recognized inequities in health. Addressing these concerns requires that our work as a college recognizes, and reflects its decision-making, that 1) people from diverse socio‑economic backgrounds, cultures, religions, genders, ages, sexual orientations, abilities, and geographic areas experience the world in different ways, and 2) to often, vulnerable and unserved groups face disparities in health that are neither normal nor just.