Dr. Said Ibrahim, the new dean of Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College, believes that a more diverse medical school is crucial to improving health disparities, writes Stephen Williams for WHYY.
In his former role as professor and vice chair of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School from 2010 to 2018, Ibrahim was assigned to the Veterans Administration Medical Center. There, he studied health disparity related to osteoporosis in the knees and hips.
“We wanted to understand how the health care system works for people regardless of their background, or their economic status, their ethnicity, race, gender or a patient’s sexual orientation,” said Ibrahim.
However, he noted, orthopedic surgery is one of the least diverse specialties in the country. The lack of diversity in orthopedic surgeons leads to a lack of medical professionals who realize different patient’s backgrounds and perspectives, which contributes to the disparity.
According to Ibrahim, one way to improve this situation is to recruit doctors and nurses from diverse backgrounds.
“One of the things that I intend to do,” said Ibrahim, “is make the case that we need a diverse workforce and students.”
He plans to do so by recruiting at HBCUs and other diverse institutions, and creating mentoring, programs, and scholarships.
Read more about how Dr. Said Ibrahim hopes to improve health disparities in WHYY.
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