Jerry Zhao is a rising senior at Brown University, concentrating in sociology as part of Brown’s Program in Liberal Medical Education. He is deeply passionate about community mental health advocacy and has been a volunteer at Hillsgrove Clubhouse in Rhode Island since his sophomore year. Learning about the history and research behind the Clubhouse Model has been formative in his education towards becoming a humanistic physician, providing a successful example of how a person-centered, strengths-based approach can both de-stigmatize mental illness and empower individuals on their recovery journey. His interests lie in community psychiatry and examining the social forces behind mental health disparities.
This summer, he worked under the mentorship of Dr. Evan Eschliman to systematically review and synthesize current qualitative research on patient and provider experiences of virtual mental health care. His primary responsibility entailed screening the titles and abstracts of papers under a set of exclusion criteria. This required developing proficiency in the Covidence online review management software, efficiently parsing through large amounts of text, and suggesting iterations of exclusion criteria. He also attended team meetings to further ascertain research articles and resolve screening conflicts.
Jerry Zhao is grateful for the opportunity to contribute to important research and is excited to carry his newfound knowledge and skills with him as he continues to pursue a career in medicine. He also plans to return to Dr. Eschliman’s team in the coming months to help conduct full-text review and analysis.