In this episode of Healthy Chats, Amy and her guests discuss the importance of diversity in medicine, specifically as it relates to inequity in health care for Black Americans and practices that can be taken to bridge that health care divide in communities of color.

Last fall, The Survey on Race and Health, a joint project between Kaiser Family Foundation and ESPN’s The Undefeated, explored the public’s views and experiences on the topics of health care, racial discrimination, and the coronavirus pandemic, with a special focus on Black adults, a group that has borne a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 cases and deaths. That survey found that 7 in 10 Black Americans believe that people are treated unfairly based on race or ethnicity when they seek medical care.

HealthCorps mission and steps taken since the organization’s inception is to combat inequity in healthcare.  To that point, 55% of HealthCorps’ coordinators have gone into medical or health professions.  And while not all HealthCorps coordinators are of color, they have all worked with communities of color, with a goal of providing long-term awareness of the communities they serve.

Joining Amy for this important discussion are two health care activists, working to address these inequities and are truly the future of medicine.

Jasmyne Jackson, is a former HealthCorps Coordinator at the Ginn Academy in Cleveland, Ohio.  Jasmyne received her Medical Degree and her MBA from the University of Michigan, where she also served as president of the Black Medical Association which focuses on health care disparities, education activism, and mentorship. Jasmyne is currently a Pediatric Resident at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center. She is also the author of a very personal and poignant opinion piece published by the Journal of American Medical Association – Pediatrics -- The Doctor Is Out—Reflections on Being a Black, Queer Physician (see attached).

Jahmil Lacy is the winner of the second HealthCorps and Dr. Oz Diversity in Medicine Scholarship.  Jahmil is a graduate of Morehouse College, the London of Economics, the Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science and is currently enrolled in medical school at UCLA.   Jahmil is also the founder of TRAP Medicine -- https://www.trapmedicine.org/ 

For more information on HealthCorps please visit our website www.healthcorps.org and for teen specific programs, visit @Teenhealthvibe on Instagram.

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