#46 Sharad Kohli, MD: Healthcare work is political work

Neuroveda Podcast for Complex Health

Health is well beyond just a medical status and is inherently political. Dr Sharad Kohli, MD, has been working in primary care with underserved populations for over 15 years. He shares his story of transition from wanting to provide good healthcare to realizing that health required other services like voting rights, access to healthy food and exercise opportunities. The transition was complete in the further realization that going upstream to work on the criminal justice system, gun rights, immigration and poverty requires attention to provide care that truly targets health. This work was formalized in the non-profit IM4US (www.IM4US.org) which has a yearly conference and continues to support all members of healthcare teams to serve underserved patients well. Further, Dr Kohli reviews their incredible integrative pain program, which focused on complex trauma as a potential trigger for substance use and targeting addiction prevention. He also reviews the importance of community and group visits for building resilience and healing with inevitable cycles of health & illness. It's an uplifting show that touches on decolonizing medicine, looking at personal bias, and presents one real-life model for how good medicine is being offered in one Austin, Texas clinic. Dr Kohli is brilliant, engaging & humble.

Why cultural safety rather than cultural competency is required to achieve health equity: a literature review and recommended definition Elana Curtis* , Rhys Jones , David Tipene-Leach , Curtis Walker , Belinda Loring , Sarah-Jane Paine and Papaarangi Reid https://equityhealthj.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12939-019-1082-3.pdf