Health disparities and inequities in medicine as a result of racism are the subject of a new, virtual history tour on the UNMC campus.
"The structure, policies, and practices of the medical community has led to unfairly disadvantaging many, where people of color have greater risk of poorer health, and this is unjust," said Jennifer Liu, MD, an assistant professor in the department of family medicine in the UNMC College of Medicine.
Dr. Liu, along with third and fourth-year medical students Donovon Allen and Mark Carter, set out to highlight those inequalities through "Combating Racism in Medicine," a virtual QR code campus tour.
"This project exposes historical practices in medicine, science and government policies that have put people of color at a disadvantage. Being open and honest about these things creates the space for dialogue to address issues and advocate for our community," Allen said.
The tour features 27 QR codes hung in various public spaces on campus, including the Chihuly Sanctuary on the third floor of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, the cardiology clinic in the Durham Outpatient Center and on the first floor of Clarkson Tower in the hallway leading to the emergency department.
The content is accessed by scanning the code with the camera app on a smartphone or tablet.
Allen and Carter are students in the Enhanced Medical Education Track for underserved and vulnerable populations, and this is their capstone project, which was funded by a medical education grant from the UNMC College of Medicine.
The content varies and includes topics such as the higher maternal mortality in African American women, the flaws in the slavery hypertension hypothesis and the number of underrepresented minorities in medicine.
The topics for each QR code were chosen based on interest and specialty areas in medicine the students rotated through during their third year of medical school.
Allen said the year-and-a-half project really enhanced his understanding of how racism in medicine has affected communities of color.
The topics he developed included a focus on race correction in pulmonary function testing, lead poisoning in North Omaha, the slavery hypertension hypothesis and bias in pain management.
"I heard about lead poisoning in North Omaha when I was on my pediatrics rotation and wanted to spend more time looking into it when working on this project," Allen said.
"At the end of the day everyone deserves a healthy life, and we have the opportunity to create that future if we work together," he said.
Thank you for this important project and contribution to our campus!!
Fantastic work! This is such important work to help us continue the conversation about race until we can have more equitable health access and outcomes! Thank you both for your work on this 🙂
This is a great project! I hope the campus receives it well and begins to learn more about how UNMC can be a part of solution to "racism in medicine" than a perpetrator of the problems.
This is a really impressive project. I have checked out two of the links so far and the information is very important and well presented. I am looking forward to doing the whole tour and then also using it for student and resident education. Great job!