![]() ![]() Please help us fund this important work at ajc.Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis Compton / “You still don’t get it”Īt the beginning of 2021, Georgia Power officials expressed high hopes. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Report for America are partnering to add more journalists to cover topics important to our community. “There’s a growing desire with the medical student population to be involved in institutions effecting change.” “We’re getting to a generation who have seen a broader conversation about race,” he said. ![]() (and) will learn over the coming years how they are integrated and the impact they have.”įuture students will likely play a part in that, said Joyner. We support individual medical schools to develop curricula according to the populations they serve. Blackstock noted that “medical schools are not obligated to follow these guidelines.”Īt the AAMC, Kamilah Weems, director of strategic initiatives and partnerships, said the guidelines were “not intended to be mandated. He added that he hoped the document would make people think about racism and bias, but allowed that “it would be easy to treat in a cursory manner, and to do the minimum amount of work.” “With the George Floyd protests and the differences in outcomes in the pandemic, the house of medicine is slowly moving, and we’re realizing we’re part of the problem,” Dr. Josh Mugele oversees resident physicians, who are doctors still in training. “We would have to study this with the curriculum committee and the diversity, equity and inclusion deans,” he concluded.Īs emergency medicine program director at Northeast Georgia Medical Center, Dr. The dean said his school had recently overhauled its curriculum as part of an initiative to shorten the time it takes to graduate, and wanted to “make sure we’re being sensitive.” Asked about the specific concepts outlined in the AAMC guidelines, including the idea of “privilege,” he said, “I’d rather not tell everyone who’s white ‘You have white privilege.’ Everyone has things they have to work on and you have to be careful how you do this.” An example: a case involving “a patient with HIV who used drugs and had braids.” The purpose was to hear their concerns about cases taught at the school, “making sure they’re not stereotyped,” said Dr. The dean said he had recently met with a student chapter of the National Medical Association, a national nonprofit organization representing Black physicians and patients. “We’ve always had an emphasis here on diversity,” he said, describing a series of initiatives to recruit “underrepresented minorities” among students and faculty. David Hess, dean of the state’s public medical school, said he had “glanced” at the AAMC document. Even during his short career, the 27-year-old said patients have told him, “You’re the first physician who has gotten this right,” whether “this” was calling a transgender patient by their chosen name, or paying attention to the cost of a medication.Īt the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Dr. Joyner pointed out that his education - and the AAMC document - don’t only focus on race, but on the broad range of identities among patients, as well as socioeconomic conditions, all of which affect health outcomes. “It was completely different!” Joyner exclaimed. “This is what you’re seeing at Grady,” he said. Then he showed slides from his own Black patients. “This is what you’re seeing in textbooks,” said the professor. He recalled a first-year class in which a professor showed slides of lupus disease symptoms in white patients. Jamil Joyner, who is scheduled to graduate from the Morehouse School of Medicine next year, said the document is “very familiar,” as it echoes his education at the historically-black school. Until now, “every medical school has been reporting diversity numbers - this takes it to the next level,” she said, adding that her school has launched an effort to address “implicit bias” and “anti-racism,” among other issues. ![]() “This work is absolutely imperative when you look at the diversity of this country,” she said. Sheryl Heron, professor of emergency medicine and associate dean for community engagement, equity and inclusion, said she “couldn’t be more thrilled” by the project. Uché Blackstock, a former medical school faculty member and founder of a health equity consulting firm, praised the document’s comprehensiveness while also asking, “Why did it take a pandemic and George Floyd’s murder to get this effort?”Īt the Emory School of Medicine, Dr. Reactions at the two metro Atlanta medical schools and the state’s public medical college ranged from welcoming celebration to a degree of interest amounting to a “glance.”ĭr. ![]()
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