White Coats for Black Lives Explore Experiences of Black Alumni

White Coats for Black Lives (WC4BL), an MSU College of Human Medicine student group seeking social justice and health care equity for Black patients, is working to develop an alumni project to honor Black physicians.

The group’s goal is to emphasize the importance of social activism as a necessary component to becoming a trustworthy physician within one’s community. Assistant Dean for Diversity and Cultural Initiatives and Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Human Development Lisa Lowery, MD, MPH, serves as the group’s faculty mentor.

“WCBL’s  mission—which includes dismantling racism in medicine and promoting the health, well-being, and self-determination of people of color—aligns well the our mission that includes promoting the dignity and inclusion of all people,” Dr. Lowery said. “Being a physician provides us with an opportunity to not just provide health care but to advocate and educate improving the lives of our patients and our communities.”

Wisdom for future Spartan MDs

The group recently had an open dialogue with Dr. Richard Ferguson, a 2004 MSU College of Human Medicine alumnus on his experiences as a Black physician. Dr. Ferguson is a family medicine physician who is Chief Medical Officer for Health Choice Utah in the Salt Lake City area. He is leading the formation of Black Physicians of Utah, an organization seeking to mentor Black students, create a community database of Black physicians, and raise community awareness of racial issues surrounding health care.

“Dr. Ferguson shared responses to questions with us that are meant for review or discussing some of the challenges our Black colleagues might face, both as current medical students and as future residents/attendings,” said first-year medical student and MSU WC4BL student leader Eric Kaltz.

The intentionality around choosing a medical school supportive of admitting and retaining Black students was highly important for Dr. Ferguson, and he wrote:

“The Office of Student Affairs and Services was certainly a resource, but my peer resource of at least ten other Black students in my class and about eight above me, helped tremendously as a form of peer support when I struggled. Not being the only Black student on a rotation or class made all the difference. Plus, I completed my last years in Saginaw, which I felt was as friendly to African-American students as Flint had the reputation for." 

 

 

Learning from experience

Responses from Dr. Ferguson to the group also centered around questions regarding the importance of social activism as a medical student. Additional insights included racial discrimination within military service, and the racism encountered post-training. Ferguson discussed that, as a health care executive, he is sometimes required to educate his white subordinates and colleagues—a task he described as causing “racial battle fatigue.”

“As a white male medical student, Dr. Ferguson's story about his time at medical school is a reminder of the importance of diversity…that my colleagues will learn better if their institution includes people who look like them,” said Kaltz.

The student organization White Coats for Black Lives firmly believes that physicians have a major public role to play in addressing systemic racism and other cultural issues, and seeks to use their powerful platform as community leaders.

Reproduced with permission from the College of Human Medicine Office of Advancement