Diversity In Medical Field Is Sorely Needed

The medical industry needs to increase its diversity. Patients need to see people they can identify with, either to know they’ll be understood or to feel like they can join the field.

But diversity can’t be achieved unless racial discrimination is stopped. 

Oftentimes minorities such as African-Americans have been used as disposable guinea pigs. From 1845 to 1849, J. Marion Sims (known as the “father of modern gynecology”) practiced surgical techniques on Black women without anesthesia.

Another baffling incident was the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in 1932 where 600 Black men were examined. At the beginning of the study, 399 men were already ill with the disease. In 1947, penicillin had become the treatment of choice for the condition, but per the request of researchers from the United States Public Health Service, participants who suffered from the diseases weren’t told about the development.

The study was terminated in 1972 after reports about the abuse leaked, but by that time 128 people had passed away and many others had been harmed from the researchers’ racially motivated medical negligence. 

We need doctors, physicians, nurses, administrators that have different backgrounds, skin colors, religions and cultural knowledge. 

Children must be given the exposure and resources to be able to enter the medical field. They deserve to feel motivated and inspired to help save lives. 

As a community, we should continue striving to find ways to reduce the cost of higher education for those that want to dive into the field but have a financial obstacle. 

Physicians swear an oath to heal all. Well, it is time that they start healing the systematic discrimination and subpar treatment of minority social groups.