Warren J. Ferguson, MD, UMass Medical School’s criminal justice health expert, will give the keynote address urging academic health science centers to address the public health effects of mass incarceration May 10 at the Correctional Health Research Symposium at Augusta University.
Dr. Ferguson will call on academic health science centers to work toward mitigating the public health consequences of criminal justice involvement through research, training and clinical care in his keynote address, “A Call to Action: A Blueprint for Academic Health Sciences in the Era of Mass Incarceration.” The symposium is sponsored by Augusta University’s Institute of Public and Preventive Health.
Ferguson, director of academic programs for UMass Medical School’s Health and Criminal Justice Program and chair of the Academic Consortium on Criminal Justice Health (ACCJH), co-authored commentary on the topic in the May issue of the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. The article suggests recommendations for addressing mass incarceration and its health implications, including the use of implementation science to understand how to adapt and adopt proven practices in justice settings, preparing medical students to care for justice-involved populations, and beginning collaboration of scholars in criminal justice and health care.
At the STFM Annual Spring Conference May 4, Ferguson challenged family medicine health professionals and educators to serve and advocate for populations affected by mass incarceration. His talk was enthusiastically received and became popular on Twitter, as shown in this Storify.
Ferguson founded the Academic and Health Policy Conference on Correctional Health and ACCJH, both of which are supported by UMass Medical School. He is leading two projects in implementation science in four correctional systems. The projects are funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and theAgency for Health Care Research and Quality.