(1/x) Last night the #MedPeds21 group chat was rocked with news of a sudden change in program leadership for the MedPeds residency at Tulane University. Dr. Dennar, the first Black female program director at Tulane, was no longer PD.
(2/x) This morning we were devastated to find that this unfair termination was a direct result of racism. I will include some screenshots of the court case for the lawsuit that Dr. Dennar filed against Tulane for reference.
(3/x) Told that Tulane did not want to change the face of medicine in fear of losing white applicants.
(4/x) Refused to acknowledge her position as PD until she had a white male co-director.
(5/x) Retaliation following bringing forwarded issues of racism and creation of a hostile work environment.
(6/x) I have not finished reading the court case in its entirety, but we must #ListenToBlackWomen and hold Tulane accountable for the ongoing institutional racism and upholding white supremacy.
(7/x) It is especially important to do this since Tulane Medical Center serves a majority of Black and Brown patients. How can we ensure equitable medical care when the program itself is not ensuring equitable recruitment and training of its resident physicians?
I apologize for any typos but I wanted to quickly put together this thread since the story needed to be told. As trainees are making their rank lists, this is absolutely important to know. Pls correct me if I misspoke anywhere.
I’ll be adding some good tweet threads from my colleagues to this thread later when I can sit down and sift through. I cannot understate the importance of amplifying Black and Brown voices in these issues. #ListenToBlackWomen#DNRTulane#DrDennar
It seems that you recently wrote an article suggesting diversifying the resident workforce is important (which it is), but I’m sure the above program is not accomplishing that. What steps are our national orgs taking to address this?
(1/x) I’ve never been great at building in exercise into my schedule but I knew I wanted to get better at it before I started residency for myself and also as an example for my patients who might struggle in a similar way.
(2/x) The gym was a no for me as I’ve been shamed for my body type in gyms before and in the middle of a pandemic it’s just not something I’m comfy with. But I found this great game for the Nintendo Switch! It incorporates resistance training, cardio, and balance training.
(3/x) It’s an adventure, role-playing game so it keeps me interested. On top of doing that each day and dancing around to One Direction Cardio workouts on YouTube, I’m finally starting to see how exercise can be fun and built into a daily schedule...