Our TUFH Annual Meeting is upon us, and it is worth re-committing to the core mission of TUFH – one that is very much connected to this journal.  The conference focuses on the north star of TUFH’s mission: educating the health workforce and having a positive impact on societal wellness.

TUFH aims to achieve this mission in several ways: Influencing education institutions’ policies through the 9 domains in the social accountability self-assessment tool (ISAT), educating students and faculty in courses that focus on social accountability, conducting Fellowships in social accountability, and strengthening regional centers of excellence for greater local impact.

Our greatest strength, and the way we can have the greatest impact, is in discovering new knowledge, evaluating the current state of education, and measuring the effect of innovations.  Research can uncover uncomfortable truths and hold policy makers accountable, and publication of that research can be a powerful antidote to policies that are not working.  Powerful forces often want to suppress data and analysis that run counter to their wishes, so we need to gather the data in the most robust manner possible and present inferences that are strongly grounded in solid analytics.

This issue includes papers with evidence for policy makers to consider.  Economic status, indebtedness, relationship status, and sexual orientation are correlated with capacity for resilience among Black osteopathic students and attention to these factors may improve support for these students.  Performance anxiety and burnout in emergency medicine residents can, and perhaps should, be measured using an innovative scale used in sports psychology.  Service learning can engender better interpersonal skills in students pursuing rehabilitation careers.  Burnout among caregivers can be ameliorated through training.  And we cannot assume that all students are facile with computer applications relevant to their education.  These are some examples of inferences generated by papers in this issue that can be presented to decision makers for action.

As we work in a world that can seem antagonistic to science, publication and dissemination of knowledge can be our most important tool to fight for change.

Bill Burdick, MD, MSEd

Co-Editor, Education for Health

Secretary-General, TUFH