Today, as the Chief DEI Officer from ACGME gave Grand Rounds, an Anonymous faculty member placed in the chat box "I respectfully disagree. We should not admit trainees based on race and not their qualifications."....Whew...This 🧵 is an attempt to address this pervasive fallacy. 2/ As a faculty member heavily involved in GME DEI work, this trope is the most common thing I hear when we speak about increasing diversity of training programs. Usually I tone down my replies to keep people comfortable. Not today.

THIS. IS. RACIST.

After seeing multiple medical professionals down-play the role racism played in the death of #DrSusanMoore, I have been thinking of how to describe the logistics of how racism manifests in medicine. One way is what I will, in this thread, call "cumulative de-prioritization." 1/ 2/ Lay people may think medicine is a panacea of limitless resources, but (especially in a pandemic), that's not true. Medical providers are CONSTANTLY triaging and prioritizing which patient gets which test / drug / family meeting at all times. Prioritizing must be done quickly.

It's 2020.

Words matter.

I hope to use my privilege and platform to change the way we discuss health inequities (while I stand on the shoulders of giants who have been in the trenches of this work).

Following is a 🧵on #RacismNotRace

#MedCrit
#MedTwitter In medicine, we must change our language when teaching students, discussing with colleagues and publishing about racial health disparities. The primary pivot is AWAY from pathologizing Black patients and TOWARDS pathologizing systems that hurt Black patients. 2/

I will try to find the words that strike the right balance between hope & frustration.

Hope : How amazing that all my colleagues are waking up to the fact that racism and racism in medicine is real.

Frustration : This feels like a nightmare.

..a 🧵 No exaggeration, I have had > 10 separate offers in the past two weeks to “give my perspective” on racism in the medical setting. Peer groups, division meeting, departmental, school of medicine, state level, national level..it goes on. Private entities and public entities alike.

The number of physicians I see on Twitter absolving themselves from change and action by saying “my anti-racist act is taking excellent care of each of my patients” is alarming and points to a major part of the problem.

A thread.. 2/ Medicine and health is in no way confined to the four walls of your hospital ward or clinic. Although generations of physicians may not have received formal teaching about SDOH does not mean we can pretend they don’t exist today.

Thread :

I am on a search committee for leadership position at our academic hospital. Final meeting today. I am the only non-white person in the room.

I felt fear.

It’s strange to call it what it is. I had rehearsed many times what I would say about diversity and equity. 1/ I even lay awake in bed today from 5-6 AM planning out just the right words so people could hear me, understand the important, not get offended.

During meeting, I had to do silent pep talk. “If I don’t say it, who will?”

Waiting for the “right time” to interject. 2/