Ever since I could remember, the third Saturday of the month was reserved for volunteering at a homeless shelter and soup kitchen in downtown Detroit. Over the years I had established a routine of cutting vegetables, making garlic bread, wiping down tables, and ladling soup to give to the residents. However, it wasn’t until flu season rolled around that I realized the residents not only needed food, but also access to quality healthcare. One day, a fellow volunteer who was a pharmacist was setting up a table to give out free flu shots to residents of the homeless shelter. As I helped her call the residents up to the table to get their shots, I noticed two things: the people who received flu shots were mostly African American, and they were of low socioeconomic status.

This was my first encounter with healthcare disparities, both racial and socioeconomic, and it made me question why these disparities occur. A few years later, I received the opportunity to learn about cultural diversities and disparities through my school’s Health Occupations Students of America chapter. After reading the book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman as part of the curriculum, I realized how much of an impact cultural and racial background can affect the way one perceives and receives healthcare. Through HOSA I was able to answer my question: why do healthcare disparities occur? But, I didn’t know what I could do to help resolve them. As I asked  my peers about this, I quickly realized that not many of my classmates knew about cultural diversities and disparities in healthcare. And honestly? I totally get why.

When most students think of the medical field, subjects such as biology, chemistry, and human anatomy are the first to come to mind. However, equally important topics such as patient background and disparities in healthcare are not even on many students’ radars. 

But I soon realized that in a country that is home to so many people of different backgrounds, it is vital that future healthcare professionals cultivate a mindset of openness and acceptance as soon as possible.

Since then, I became committed to educating future healthcare professionals about the importance of learning about patient diversity and disparities in the hopes that this knowledge could be used to overcome systematic racism and disparities in the healthcare field while raising awareness of different forms of healthcare practiced throughout the world.

I decided to start Humanity In Health to help future healthcare professionals gain knowledge of different medical practices among various cultures and become more aware of the countless disparities that plague the healthcare industry. Through Humanity In Health, aspiring healthcare professionals are able to read blog posts about different medical practices, listen to doctors’ experiences with the healthcare industry and how they have implemented cultural competence in their practice, and watch recorded lectures about cultural competence and medical sociology. The core of Humanity In Health can be best summarized through the words of Sir William Osler: “The good physician treats the disease. The great physician treats the patient who has the disease.” 

In a time of racial injustice, inequality, and mistreatment, it is more important than ever to cultivate the next generation of empathetic physicians who are aware that different people view medicine in different ways. Be sure to check out www.humanityinhealth.org to learn more about healthcare and its many forms.