Baptist Memorial Healthcare held its third annual Black Men in White Coats event in April at Baptist Health Sciences University.
The event is part of a program organized by Black medical professionals to bring more African Americans into the health care field.
“We recognize that there are fewer and fewer young African-American males and females going to medical school and entering into the health career. We're trying to increase that number,” said Baptist Memorial Hospital’s Dr. Keith Norman. “We believe it will also lower the number of disparities that we face in our communities, especially when people receive healthcare from people who look like them.”
In a 2020 editorial on the hospital website, Jason Little, President/Chief Executive Officer Baptist Memorial Health Care, spoke of being surprised to learn that fewer black men are applying to and attending medical school today than in 1978. He stressed the importance of the Black Men in White Coats initiative to “introduce minority students to local black medical professionals and potential mentors, as well as help them access financial and other resources to help them pursue careers in medicine and science. It is our hope that we can inspire and facilitate the next generation of medical professionals in Memphis.”
The Black Men in White Coats Video Series and mentoring program was started by Dr. Dale Okorodudu in collaboration with Duke University School of Medicine to inspire underrepresented minority students to consider medical careers and to increase ethnic and socioeconomic diversity in the field of medicine. Baptist Memorial has expanded the program to encourage minority youth to have an interest in the pursuit of health care careers and medicine.
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