SynthesisFrontiers in medicine2026
Embedding structural and social determinants of cardiovascular health into medical education: a systematic review of pedagogical frameworks.
Synthesis in Frontiers in medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of preventable death globally, yet its burden is unequally distributed across social and structural lines. Given its unique clinical and social richness, cardiovascular disease represents a compelling vehicle through which health professions learners can develop the competencies needed to address these disparities in practice. This review aims to synthesise existing evidence on how cardiovascular disease is used as a teaching vehicle for structural and social competency in health professions education, and to evaluate the effectiveness of such interventions among health professions learners. Methods: Six databases were searched for studies describing educational interventions incorporating cardiovascular disease to teach structural and social determinants of health to health professions learners. Data on learner type, CVD topic, SDOH content, pedagogical approach, learner outcomes, and methodological quality were extracted. Results: Five studies met the inclusion criteria, all conducted in the United States, spanning medical students, pharmacy students, health science students, and cardiovascular fellowship trainees. Hypertension, myocardiaxl infarction, and women's cardiovascular disease served as the primary teaching topics, with race, racism, and socioeconomic status as the most consistently addressed structural determinants. Interventions ranged from single sessions to a multimodal longitudinal fellowship curriculum. Three studies demonstrated statistically significant pre-to-post improvements in learner knowledge, attitudes, and structural understanding; one produced high-quality written reflections in 90%-96% of students; and one reported positive qualitative feedback without formal quantitative assessment. Conclusion: The available evidence suggests that cardiovascular disease is a feasible and promising teaching vehicle for structural and social competency, but current evidence is limited by small study numbers, US-only settings, heterogeneous interventions, and limited long-term outcome data. The results support investment in CVD-focused interventions, especially if longitudinal and experiential, to develop a more structurally competent health workforce. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO: CRD420251231266.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.