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Date: Sep 21, 2011

Harvard Professor & Author Draws Huge Audience at Med School; Speaks About Unconscious Bias in Health Care

Dr. Augustus Whitee III, Author of Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care wraps up school's lecture series on Educating Tomorrow's Physician

The Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine recently hosted Dr. Augustus White III, who presented the eighth in a series of lectures promoting humanism in health care. Dr. White, author of Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care and the Ellen and Melvin Gordon Distinguished Professor of Medical Education and Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School, met with many of the inaugural medical students privately prior to his lecture as he shared his personal experiences. 

White also took time to meet with several students from the School of Medicine’s Pipeline Program. The Pipeline Program is designed to increase diversity of the healthcare workforce by exposing interested students from underprivileged backgrounds to various healthcare professions. Dr. White was the first African-American to graduate from Stanford University School of Medicine and the first African-American orthopedic resident at Yale Medical Center. He called the young students “national treasures” and commended the School of Medicine for contributing to, and nurturing, their educational experience.

 

“The medical students, as well as our high school Pipeline students, were afforded a wonderful and unique learning experience today by meeting with Dr. White,” said Dr. Lawrence Smith, Dean of the School of Medicine. “Hearing Dr. White share his personal journey and his achievements as an African American doctor, is inspiring for all our students.”

Dr. White’s visit to the School of Medicine was part of the school’s free lecture series aimed at engaging students, faculty and community in active discussions about the School of Medicine’s core values. During his lecture, Dr. White also praised the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine for making “diversity” a core value of the school’s founding principles.

Dr. White stated that “Disparities in treatment are a paradigm for many of our global problems. Finding solutions to inequalities in our health care will likewise help us to achieve solutions to some of the great global problems.”

Following the lecture, Dr. White signed copies of his book in the Medical School Health Sciences Library.

Dr. White has served as a mentor to Harvard medical students as a former master of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Society, an organization committed to the promotion and support of the academic and professional development of Harvard’s medical students. In addition to his mentoring work, White dedicates much of his life to diversity-related issues. He is a founding member and founding president of the J. Robert Gladden Orthopaedic Society, a multicultural organization dedicated to advancing excellent musculoskeletal care for all patients, with particular attention to underserved groups. White also served as the inaugural chairman of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ Diversity Committee. White served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Vietnam and received a Bronze Star Medal. He later earned his Ph.D. in research on biomechanics of the spine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.