White coats for black lives
Sending a regular newsletter right now feels like the ultimate expression of privilege - “I know the world is focused on racism and racial injustice, but I still have something to say about an unrelated topic that interests me.” So I’m not going to do that.
I thought about sending out a newsletter regarding the racial disparities in health outcomes, the discrimination that black doctors face from patients, or the way that academic medical centers both subtly and overtly perpetuate racial inequality.
But honestly, who cares what I have to say about these topics? They’ve been addressed by people much more qualified than I am.
I would encourage everyone to look at some of those links to understand just how deeply racial injustice invades every aspect of the health care system - from patient outcomes to the discrimination black doctors face from both their patients and their employers.
In the medical world, summer brings with it application and interview season for residencies and fellowships. If we want to recruit socially conscious doctors moving forward, the onus is on us to demonstrate that we are taking real steps to combat racial inequality.
Programs now need to be able to answer the question, raised by an NYU med student on Twitter, “What concrete steps have your organization and program taken to become actively anti-racist?”
So I’ll share what I’m doing and what my organization is doing.
Creating a curriculum for faculty development in the residency program here that will educate our faculty on ways to address issues like unconscious bias, structural racism, and racial health inequities.
We held a town hall last week to hear from our [100% non-white] residents about the unique issues they have faced at this hospital and in this community. This will help inform the faculty curriculum to ensure a long lasting impact on our system, and we plan to hold these regularly.
Personally, I’m donating money to Campaign Zero, an organization with the goal of eliminating police violence, through the immediate step of supporting the 8 Can’t Wait initiative. I chose this organization because of their data driven, locally focused approach to reducing racial police violence.
It’s really easy to make a social media post about the cause of the moment and then two weeks later go back to regular life. So I’m hopeful that curriculum development as an impetus for sustained action in my professional world has impact.
I’ll end by encouraging each of you to consider concrete steps you can take in your own personal or professional world as an important addition to how you think or talk about these issues.