(Series) Why We Need More: Black Doctors

By: Jasmine Smith

You’ve heard the term health is wealth right? Well that statement is absolutely true, but unfortunately in the Black community there is a deep rooted stigma about doctors for a number of reasons including past traumas of treatment of our ancestors with experiments such as the Tuskegee syphilis study or the past treatment of slaves. Some don’t go and others might go, but are still skeptical because let’s be real many doctors are quick to write things off or diagnose us with high-blood pressure, diabetes, etc.; which are often considered common in the Black community. While that may be true, doctors are quicker to put African American patients on tons of medicine, especially if they are older rather than working with them for healthier solutions and alternatives. Institutional racism exists and unfortunately health care is one of the biggest places for it. We need more Black doctors because no one understands our history like our own, but also because more Black doctors can lead to better health in the black community and an overall better, more trusting relationship with medical officials. But how do we get there and what problems need to be fixed?

Although Black people account for about 13 percent of the population, they only make up about five percent of physicians in the U.S.

What we know is that mistrust can work both ways between a doctor and a patient and that is not something that is needed when dealing with something as serious as health. Back in 2018, research showed that African American men, particularly were more comfortable taking health advice from someone that looked like them. That same finding also found that a more diverse workforce can lead to a smaller life expectancy gap between white and black men. When dealing with medicine, health diagnosis, treatment, etc. patients want to know that they will be taken care of the best way possible and a lot of that starts with knowing the doctor cares and understands their patients point of view. Naturally, a Black doctor is more likely to relate and empathize.

On the doctor’s side, even ones that are well meaning, their mistrust comes from a similar place. They may provide their patients with all the best resources and there can still be a disconnect because they aren’t able to put themselves in their patients’ shoes. Whether they mean to or not, this can cause the patient to become distant and distrusting.

Outside of mistrust, one of the biggest issues for Black patients is feeling like they aren’t being taken seriously. No one knows their bodies more than the person living in them right? But, in the Black community especially, a lot of doctors tend to write off what their patients tell them as nothing too serious. Far too often, Black people have been diagnosed with things at a later stage when they could have caught it earlier because of this.

For older Black patients, it’s been found that they received less empathy from white physicians than from Black physicians.

The key isn’t just for a doctor to have great diagnostic skills, but to also exhibit great communication and cultural competence with their patients. They must be able to bridge any cultural or ethnic gaps between them and their patients.

Dr. Damon Tweedy, author of “Black Man in a White Coat” says, “When I have been particularly successful at treating black patients, it has often had less to do with any particular talent on my part than with my patients’ willingness to bring up the racial concerns that troubled them.” This is important for Black patients, because their past traumas often play a major role in the health issues they may face.

So we know the problem, but how do we rectify it and get more black doctors, nurses, etc.? For starters, Valerie Montgomery Rice, MD, notes in her essay that colleges need to place less emphasis on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and use it as one of several determinants in the selection process. “This approach could potentially lead to 3,000 more Black physicians in the training pipeline and eventually practicing in the U.S. today,” she says.

Morehouse has already placed less emphasis on the MCAT and seen success in the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 exam, according to Dr. Montgomery Rice.

“Many schools worry about U.S. News & World Report medical school rankings, which have served mostly to create a new revenue stream, marketing advantages and competition,” she continues. “Neither the rankings nor the competition allows us to educate and train the health care professionals the nation needs. Our priorities are misplaced.”

Clyde Yancy, MD, an AMA member who is vice dean for diversity and inclusion at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, believes that non HBCUs have to also play a part in enrolling more Black medical students. He suggests that increasing class sizes by one or two underrepresented minority students could create a steady flow for new Black physicians coming in.

Furthermore AMA has started AMA Doctors Back to School, which shows children that medicine is available to people of all races by introducing them to professional role models from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. They also shared a diversity and inclusion plan for action.

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