by Brooke Bunch
In the culmination of the
Minority Health Month lecture series, Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O.,
“took the stand” Thursday afternoon in Irvine Hall for “A Legacy
of Health Disparities.”
Four years ago she left OU-COM,
where she served as dean from 1993–2001. Ross-Lee,
the first black woman to be
appointed dean of an American medical school, spoke on the
disparities in minority health care and their deep-rooted
history in American culture.
“This is like
coming home for me,” she told the crowd gathered in Irvine Hall.
“You don’t realize how much you appreciate something until you
leave it.”
“You’ve got a
wonderful school and a wonderful faculty here,” she told the
students. “It’s head and shoulders above what other medical
schools have. You will be prepared like none other.”
Ross-Lee revealed
elements of her past from Detroit, where she was raised in a
housing project in the inner city. Dealing with family illnesses
and the death of her mother to breast cancer, Ross-Lee assured
she was no stranger to disparities in health care.
“I speak from
experience,” she said. “I’m serious about osteopathic medicine.
I’ve dedicated my life to it.”
Ross-Lee said
disparities have existed ever since slavery, when Africans were
stripped of their cultures.
“Practically
everything that distinguishes man from animals was taken away
from them,” she said.
Interestingly
enough, infant mortality in blacks was higher during the time of
the Jim Crow laws — which maintained the “separate but equal”
doctrine for the so-called races — than it was during slavery.
“Black babies
were dying at a rate of five to seven times higher than white
babies,” she said.
Disparities
continue to the present time with an excess death rate of 75,000
African Americans annually in the United States.
“That’s 75,000
deaths each year that are preventable,” she said.
In addition,
blacks top the charts in 13 of the 15 leading causes of death in
America according to Ross-Lee, who referred to the disturbing
numbers as a “scandal” that no one is paying attention to.
Yet she sees hope
in the future physicians of OU-COM.
“Let me tell you
who will have an impact on it,” she told the students. “You. You
are the ones who can make a difference.”
“I personally
need you to take advantage of this opportunity, because it’s the
only way we can address issues such as the health disparities
among minorities,” she told the students. “It’s not about you.
It’s about a profession, it’s about medicine. It’s about the
patients you serve.”
Using Albert
Einstein’s theory of relativity, Ross-Lee stressed the sentiment
that each individual has his own perspective, derived from past
experiences, choices, opportunities, heritage and education. And
the more perspectives involved in solving a problem, the better
chance of solving it, which according to Ross-Lee, is crucial in
the medical world.
“It’s not an
affirmative action strategy,” she said. “It’s just a strategy to
make science and medicine better. Diversity in a medical school
brings unique perspectives to the educational environment and
benefits us all.”
“Each of you has
the potential to expand medical science,” she told the students.
“Each of you brings your own unique and personal perspective.”
Ross-Lee
concluded by urging students to take advantage of their
opportunity in the medical profession to make a difference and
make a positive impact on health-care disparities.
Ross-Lee
graduated from Detroit’s Wayne State University in 1965 with a
bachelor of science degree in biology and chemistry. In 1973 she
graduated from the Michigan State University College of
Osteopathic Medicine. Ross-Lee opened up a family practice in
Detroit, which lasted until 1984, when she joined the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services as a consultant on
education in the health professions. Ross-Lee was a community
representative on the Governor’s Minority Health Advisory
Committee for the state of Michigan from 1990 to 1993. In 1991
she was the first osteopathic physician to participate in the
Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship.
- 30 -
News for
the week of April 25 – April 30
