African-American twins, Brittani James and Brandi Jackson, university-trained doctors from Twinsburg, Ohio united – have embarked on a mission to dismantle the deep-rooted structural racism within the United States healthcare system.
Reports have it that the COVID-19 pandemic has let come to the forefront racial issues that have always existed within the medical industry in the country — laying bare racially-based inequities and disparities in treatment between black women in particular and the white population.
Speaking with newsmen, Dr Brittani James shares her observations working as a doctor of internal medicine.
“I see my patients, I see them go to different hospitals. I see and understand that the standard of care that they get is less than. I see it. It’s undeniable.
“We have tremendous, profound, deep racial disparities in health outcomes, and we believe that the system of medicine and the racism that is endemic to it are a large force that create and perpetuate these disparities.
“We are calling for a radical reimagining of how we deliver health care in this country.”
According to reports, the now Dr James and Dr Jackson always got recognition in their hometown as they were brilliant students in the marginalised area where they grew up.
It was stated that their hometown is a type of perceived low-income community typically overlooked by the US society at large — whose children often do not have bright futures forecast ahead of them.
psychiatrist Dr Brandi Jackson recalls that “It was only my sister and I looking on the internet and finding a list of Ivy League schools and saying, hey, well, nobody really told us to, but it seems like this is where smart people go, so let’s try it”.
NCNC gathered that the hard work of the young girls culminated in earning scholarships to elite and prestigious Ivy League universities for their higher education where they went on to earn medical degrees — despite being the racial minority in their classes.
In a recent podcast that the duo hosts, Dr Brittani said “People aren’t listening to us without a white coat. And they’re definitely not listening to me without a degree”.
Reports said the accomplished twin doctors are now using the privilege that their earned positions of established medical professionals affords them to lift up other African-Americans who aspire to work in the health sector.
Dr Jackson noted that “For every two twins like this, there were hundreds and thousands of talented bright Black people who are never given the opportunity to sit where we sit, who at every turn are facing obstacles and barriers”.
In a historic move, not only have the sisters developed antiracist coursework used in two Chicago medical schools but they co-founded the Institute for Antiracism in Medicine.
Dr Jackson is firm in their chosen mission, “We have an opportunity here to name the ills of medicine and actually do something about it.”
It was stated that the establishment enables doctors to take accredited classes exploring racism in the health sector in exchange for credits in further studies in medicine.
It also educates white physicians’ already practising medicine on the harsh realities and racial nuances — that are not only ingrained within the medical system, but that they too might unintentionally be perpetuating.
