In a USA Today opinion article published on July 15, Prof. Howard Forman and Dr. Cecelia Calhoun ’21 call for a series of reforms to address racism against Black people in healthcare.
Calhoun is a student in Yale SOM’s MBA for Executives program and an inaugural Pozen Commonwealth Fund Fellow in Health Equity Leadership. A pediatric hematologist at Washington University School of Medicine, her research has focused on improving outcomes for patients with sickle cell disease. Forman is a professor in the practice of management at Yale SOM and the director of the healthcare curriculum of the MBA for Executives program, as well as a professor at the Yale School of Public Health and the Yale School of Medicine and a practicing physician. They co-authored the article with Victor Agbafe and Avery Ofoje.
“As members of the medical community—students, clinicians and educators—we must challenge this reality to fully honor the Hippocratic oath and begin to deliver on the promise of liberty and justice for all,” the authors write. “To begin the multiplex work of confronting racism against Black people in our health care system, we must shore up the Black physician workforce, meaningfully address social determinants of health, close empathy gaps toward Black patients and recover the Black community’s trust in medical institutions.”
Read the commentary.
