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[00:00.04]The American Medical Association (AMA)

[00:04.44]recently said the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling

[00:09.08]on affirmative action dealt a "serious blow"

[00:13.80]to the medical field's goal

[00:16.20]of increasing the number of Black doctors.

[00:20.04]Affirmative action describes the idea

[00:22.56]that it is good for society to favor people

[00:25.96]who come from groups thought to have

[00:28.92]been discriminated against in the past.

[00:31.68]Earlier this year, the nation's high court ruled

[00:35.60]it is unlawful for colleges and universities

[00:39.44]to consider race in choosing students.

[00:43.60]Because the Supreme Court's decision includes medical schools,

[00:48.08]the AMA said the ruling will hurt "gains

[00:51.44]made in the battle against health inequities.

[00:55.60]Many medical schools used affirmative action ideas

[00:59.80]to increase the number of Black students.

[01:02.80]But even with those efforts,

[01:05.12]a University of California at Los Angeles study in 2021

[01:10.80]said the percentage of Black doctors had only increased

[01:15.76]by four percent from 1900 to 2018.

[01:21.64]Experts believe increasing the number of Black doctors

[01:26.00]could help Black people's health.

[01:29.16]Right now, only six percent of physicians in the U.S. are Black

[01:34.64]but 13 percent of the population is Black.

[01:39.84]A series of reports by the Associated Press (AP)

[01:43.96]said that Black people

[01:46.24]do not get taken care of

[01:48.04]as well as white people starting at birth.

[01:51.52]The AP reported that patients said doctors ignored

[01:56.64]or brushed aside their concerns partly because of bias

[02:01.36]and racism within the U.S. medical system.

[02:06.12]Uché Blackstock is an emergency doctor in New York City.

[02:10.68]He wrote a book called Legacy:

[02:13.56]A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine.

[02:18.88]He called the low number of Black doctors "a crisis of humanity."

[02:24.28]Starling Tolliver is a 30-year-old Black doctor

[02:29.64]trying to influence people's opinions.

[02:34.24]She is in her final year of residency

[02:38.12]– or training – in dermatology.

[02:41.24]A dermatologist is a doctor who specializes

[02:45.32]in diseases of the skin.

[02:48.44]She is training at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

[02:54.36]As a girl growing up in the Midwestern city of Akron, Ohio,

[03:00.28]she felt like her dream of being a doctor was out of reach.

[03:05.92]She did not often see doctors who looked like her

[03:11.08]when she went for treatments

[03:13.48]for a condition that caused her to lose her hair.

[03:18.00]She stayed with her goal of becoming a doctor

[03:21.52]because she made an agreement with two friends.

[03:26.20]When they were young,

[03:27.72]they all said they wanted to be doctors,

[03:31.16]so they could help other Black people.

[03:35.28]One of the friends, Charmaine, became a nurse

[03:39.36]and one, Maria, died as a teenager.

[03:44.52]Tolliver said Maria's death made her work harder.

[03:49.32]"I'm going to continue

[03:51.40]to go on this path of medicine," Tolliver said.

[03:55.32]"Not only for myself, but for Maria,

[03:59.20]and to potentially help others in the future

[04:03.24]from similar backgrounds..."

[04:06.20]Tolliver's plan of being a skin doctor

[04:09.96]might be a good way to help Black people.

[04:14.24]The Association of American Medical Colleges

[04:18.48]says just 65 of almost 800 applicants for residencies

[04:25.56]in dermatology were Black in 2020.

[04:30.08]But many Blacks do not go

[04:33.12]to dermatologists for treatment.

[04:36.88]The AP reports that minority patients

[04:40.08]are half as likely to see dermatologists

[04:43.28]when compared to white patients.

[04:46.72]Also, more Black men die from skin cancer

[04:50.68]compared to men of other races.

[04:53.00]That information came from a study published earlier this year

[04:57.68]in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

[05:01.28]Dr. Ashley Wysong was one of the writers.

[05:05.52]She said 75 percent of white men survive skin cancer

[05:11.44]but only 52 percent of Black men do.

[05:15.72]She said if there is a difference in results

[05:18.92]for patients being treated for the same problem,

[05:22.20]"we have to look at ways that we are falling short."

[05:27.84]Some education experts say ending affirmative action

[05:31.80]might increase interest in medical schools at HBCUs,

[05:37.04]or historically black colleges and universities.

[05:41.68]Morehouse College, in Atlanta,

[05:44.12]receives over 7,000 medical school applications each year

[05:48.92]for only 115 openings.

[05:53.12]The medical school's president and CEO

[05:55.76]is Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice.

[05:58.84]She said she expects the number of applicants

[06:02.44]to rise at Morehouse and other HBCU medical schools.

[06:07.76]Tolliver, the dermatology resident,

[06:10.72]said financial aid programs that target minority students

[06:14.76]who are interested in becoming doctors are important.

[06:19.16]The American Academy of Dermatology

[06:21.68]has a program called Pathways.

[06:25.08]Its goal is to increase

[06:27.88]the number of minority dermatology residents

[06:31.16]from 100 in 2022 to 250 by 2027.

[06:38.60]The program aims to help young people

[06:41.16]who are interested in medicine

[06:43.16]and guide them into dermatology.

[06:46.88]It targets high school students

[06:49.12]and supports them

[06:50.48]as they go to college and medical school.

[06:53.28]Some receive financial aid.

[06:57.24]Tolliver received financial aid

[06:59.56]from Ohio State University for her studies,

[07:02.88]but she also believes Pathways

[07:05.56]was important for her later training.

[07:09.56]Azariah Providence is a 17-year-old high school student

[07:15.24]who lives in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

[07:19.20]She hopes to be a dermatologist one day.

[07:23.00]She joined the Pathways program last month.

[07:28.20]She wants to be a skin doctor

[07:30.72]so she can help other girls

[07:33.04]who have skin problems like she did.

[07:36.84]She said she never had a chance to talk with

[07:40.68]and learn from minority college students

[07:44.44]and doctors before.

[07:47.68]Providence said it is important for Black people

[07:51.52]to learn to care for skin because some problems

[07:55.68]appear differently on Black skin than white skin.

[08:00.36]She hopes more people who look like her

[08:03.72]can get "a correct diagnosis...

[08:07.04]and the correct treatment," from dermatologists.

[08:12.24]Adam Friedman is a dermatologist

[08:15.24]and the leader of the department

[08:18.00]at George Washington School of Medicine

[08:20.96]in Washington, D.C.

[08:23.92]He said updating textbooks is important,

[08:28.44]but programs such as Pathways are very important.

[08:33.88]As Tolliver finishes her training,

[08:37.12]she said she hopes she can push dermatologists

[08:40.96]to seek better outcomes – especially for Black women.

[08:46.72]She said her goal since childhood

[08:50.36]has been "for Black women

[08:52.68]to see the beauty of themselves, within themselves."

[08:57.52]I'm Caty Weaver.

[08:59.12]And I'm Dan Friedell.

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Words in This Story

inequities –n. unfair or unequal things

bias –n. to lean to one side; to not be balanced but, instead, to show only one side

potentially –adv. something that could be or has the possibility of becoming real

applicant –n. a person who is seeking entry into a school or trying to get a job; anyone who applies to get something

diagnosis –n. the act or process of finding out what disease, illness, sickness or other problem affects a patient