Neil Calman, MD, and Kamini Doobay
Kamini Doobay, a fourth-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, played a key role in organizing a recent forum in New York City that featured renowned medical, public health, and academic leaders who convened to examine racial inequities that contribute to poorer health outcomes in communities of color.
The program, “Dismantling Racism in the NYC Health System: The Time is Now,” took place Saturday, March 12, at the CUNY Graduate Center and drew 200 participants. Ms. Doobay worked with Mount Sinai’s Department of Medical Education, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, and other entities to develop the day-long activities.
Keynote speakers included New York City Health Commissioner Mary Travis Bassett, MD, MPH; Neil Calman, MD, Professor and System Chair of The Alfred and Gail Engelberg Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Chief Executive Officer of The Institute for Family Health; and Camara P. Jones, MD, PhD, MPH, President of the American Public Health Association and Senior Fellow at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute and the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine.
Camara P. Jones, MD, PhD, MPH
“Longstanding institutional racism has led to unacceptable health inequities in New York City,” Dr. Bassett told participants. “Health professionals have a responsibility to acknowledge how racism can negatively impact a person’s health and use their credibility to advocate for change.”
Dr. Calman, who co-founded the Institute for Family Health, one of the largest and most highly acclaimed networks of community health centers in New York State, is considered a visionary leader in the effort to eliminate health care disparities.
“New York City has one of the most economically and racially segregated health care systems in the United States,” Dr. Calman said. “Blacks and Latinos are more than twice as likely to be uninsured or publicly insured.”
Dr. Jones spoke about achieving health equity on a national level. “Racism saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources,” she said. Under Dr. Jones’ leadership, the American Public Health Association is launching a “National Campaign Against Racism.”
Mary Travis Bassett, MD, MPH
“Highlighting sources of racial and ethnic inequities, providing health professionals with the tools to address them, and recommending interventions were our primary goals,” says Ms. Doobay. “Our unity shows the extended community that this work is larger than any one of us. Now is the time to come together and translate awareness into action.”
“We were proud to be co-sponsors of such an important event, which comes at a critically important juncture in the history of the medical profession and of our country,” said David Muller, MD, Dean for Medical Education and the Marietta and Charles C. Morchand Chair in Medical Education, about the forum.
The Icahn School of Medicine has instituted programs to eliminate bias and racism from Mount Sinai’s academic and professional communities through collaborations with, among others, the Anti-Racism Coalition and LGBTQ student groups. It has also started developing innovative race and bias initiatives, which include the reassessment of the medical school curriculum, physician training, and admissions processes.