Given yesterday’s disturbing news about decreasing Black, Hispanic, and Native American medical school enrollees due to the 2023 SCOTUS affirmative action decision, I’m resharing this @PostOpinions excerpt from my book, “Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine” Link: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/…

*ICYMI*: This study from the @commonwealthfnd reveals women in the U.S. have significantly worse life expectancy, avoidable death rates, illness rates, and mental health than women in 13 other countries.

Key findings for U.S. women include…

THREAD.

commonwealthfund.org/publications/i… 📉 The lowest life expectancy and the highest rate of avoidable deaths — more than triple the rate in Japan and Korea.

I’ve been scared to speak up more about Gaza. I feel unburdened to share I’ve been targeted & disparaged, as a Black woman physician, by nefarious forces within medicine, because of my pro-humanity stance, but NO MORE. I CANNOT be more scared than Palestinians in this moment.

https://twitter.com/oni_blackstock/status/1845853350535008767

My sister’s post today has given me courage to speak up.
Ta-Nehisi Coates has given me courage.
The Palestinian people have given more courage.
The gruesome images I have born witness to every day have forever changed me.

"A biased test kept thousands of Black people from getting a kidney transplant. It’s finally changing"

14,000 Black kidney transplant candidates have been moved up in priority on the transplant list after a biased race-correction factor was eliminated.

apnews.com/article/kidney… “At issue is a once widely used test that overestimated how well Black people’s kidneys were functioning, making them look healthier than they really were — all because of an automated formula that calculated results for Black and non-Black patients differently.”

Suicide rates among Black women increased from 1999 to 2020, especially among teens and young adults, according to the latest research published by Dr. Victoria Joseph of @ColumbiaMSPH.

publichealth.columbia.edu/news/suicide-r… For her part, Joseph added that “intimate partner violence, neighborhood violence and lack of investment into federal and state support systems also contribute to poor mental health outcomes and limited treatment access" for young Black women facing a mental health crisis.

Black women who experienced racism in job, housing & police interactions had a higher chance of stroke c/w other BW. They were also more likely to live in high socioeconomic status areas, have higher education levels, and less likely to live in the South.
nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/ne… "Previous findings from Boston University identified associations of perceived interpersonal racism with higher risks of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and even decreased subjective cognitive function, often resulting in frequent confusion and memory loss."

In 1851, Dr. Samuel Cartwright, a white psychologist & surgeon, practicing in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi publicly announced the discovery of what he called “Drapetomania,” a disease that makes enslaved Black people want to escape or otherwise resist. Cartwright claimed science proved enslaved Black people had smaller brains, more sensitive skin, and overdeveloped nervous systems- all of which resulted in them being naturally conducive to servitude. He presented his findings at medical conferences throughout the South.

As if our healthcare system isn’t struggling already, a new study finds that in some markets, private equity firms own more than half of physician practices, driving up costs that patients ultimately end up bearing and compromising care.

nytimes.com/2023/07/10/ups… From the article:

The Supreme Court's decision to strike down affirmative action, including in professional schools, like medical and nursing, will have detrimental consequences on Black health for generations to come. This is about life & death for us. Today, we are only 5% of physicians. For many of us, becoming health professionals is more than about individual success. We are more likely to practice in our communities. Our patients are more likely to feel seen, heard, and appreciated by us. Our presence in our communities is associated with better health.

Study: Wealthiest Black Moms More Likely To Die In Childbirth Than Poorest White Moms

In data from California, household income played absolutely no role in determining maternal and infant health outcomes.

fatherly.com/health/wealthi… "In fact, the effects caused by structural racism are so strong that even the wealthiest Black women and their newborns experience worse outcomes than those from the lowest-income white families."

I’ve shared before that my mother died when I was 19. She was only 47 and had acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), a blood cancer. I found out after she died that clinical trials for AML treatments enroll very few Black patients. Diversity in clinical trials is the difference between life and death. That’s why I’m excited to be partnering with @CancerSupportHQ once again.

Sobering new data from the last few years showing the U.S. maternal mortality rate continues to exceed that of other high-income countries.

This horrifyingly high rate is driven especially by the deaths of Black birthing people. That rate is exceptionally high - twice the average rate and three times that of their white peers.

The U.S. is the only country of these high-income countries that does not provide universal health care leaving 8 million people of reproductive age uninsured.

Spent over an hour this morning looking high & low in my apartment for a book called “Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants” my 6-year-old swore I took from him at bedtime only to find it under the sink. No one told me how humbling parenting would be. 😫😫🤣🤣😭😭