Support and Protect Institutional Health Equity Efforts

PLEASE SIGN HERE TO ADD YOUR SUPPORT TO THIS LETTER: https://forms.gle/sPgwjg7GSuVvRY7W7

Letters will be delivered to individual health systems and professional organizations following the collection of signatures.

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Dear [WILL ADD PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY AND HEALTH SYSTEMS’ NAMES]:

We are writing on behalf of racially minoritized equity champions to ask for your support in protecting those committed to promoting antiracism in healthcare.

On January 22, 2022, over two dozen neo-nazi white supremacists gathered outside Brigham & Women’s Hospital to protest a pilot program meant to correct the racial inequities in cardiovascular care at that hospital. The leads of that program, Drs. Michelle Morse and Bram Wispelway, were targeted by name and identified in photographs. This incident was not an isolated event but the culmination of the continued failure of the healthcare system as a whole to embrace and uplift antiracism initiatives that actualize health equity for all patients and curate safe and nurturing educational and working environments where Black and other minoritized identities can thrive.

While we are not surprised by the immense opposition to equity work by far-right extremists, we are shocked by the palpable silence of hospitals, medical and healthcare professional societies, and other healthcare stakeholders who– following the 2020 George Floyd murder and the resultant protests–made public statements renewing their commitment to antiracism efforts in healthcare and society at large. With the exception of the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Medical Association, Massachusetts Medical Society, a few individuals, and internal communications within the Brigham, to our knowledge, no other hospital system or professional society has addressed the incident that took place on January 22nd.

We believe such silence does harm in several ways. First, it undermines the effectiveness of programs that seek to address health injustice by casting skepticism around their mission and by changing public perceptions. Second, it communicates to marginalized communities that they remain a non-priority to institutions that promised to support and serve these communities. Third, it directly emboldens future protesters and other far-right extremists to use violence and terror as a means to intimidate healthcare workers and patients which places people being targeted by extremist resistance in direct harm. Lastly, it reinforces the sense of institutional betrayal often felt by historically disenfranchised and minoritized people when institutions are silent in the face of anticipated risks or present harm endured by equity leaders. Silence is violence.

Let’s be clear: these abuses and attacks are not limited to just these physicians but include all members of our healthcare community who lead antiracism work in their respective fields and across the arenas of healthcare and public health. Indeed, these non-physician allies are often at higher risk of harm as they are historically offered less protection in the healthcare hierarchy. Antiracist clinicians and leaders such as Monica McLemore, PhD, MPH, RN of University of California Los Angeles and Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH of the American Medical Association have endured attacks and death threats even to the point of requiring personal security detail and to taking extreme measures to keep all personal identifiers private.

We believe it is important that healthcare institutions and organizations vocally use this moment to: a) publicly reassert the importance of race-conscious equity interventions; b) provide institutional protections for employees who are leading equity interventions and are most at risk of emotional, psychological and physical harm as well as community and institutional retaliation; and c) bolster support for equity interventions in ways that help to ensure their integrity, buy-in, and institutional viability.

In the absence of such actions, organizations run the risk of compromising institutional support and buy-in for equity initiatives, which is vital to their success.

In light of the above, we ask that you take the following three actions:

1. Issue a public statement in support of all health equity and antiracist champions in your institution who are working to correct historic inequities in health care. For context, you may reference the experience of such targeted healthcare workers as Drs. Morse, Wispelwey, McLemore and Maybank. It must be clear that your institution unequivocally upholds this important work and is committed to continuing to support antiracism efforts.
2. Invest resources into the protection of faculty, staff and community leaders leading and involved in race-explicit equity interventions. This includes protection against workplace retaliation, but also the provision of resources–such as additional security detail–to promote the mental and physical well-being of these individuals. Institutions have a responsibility to assess and intervene when racially minoritized individuals experience mental, emotional or physical trauma as a result of promoting equity initiatives within their organizations.
3. Immediately implement well-resourced systems of accountability with community oversight to address harm experienced by faculty, staff, and trainees of Black and other minoritized identities. As part of this effort, we ask that you please ensure safety for the community leaders asked to partner on antiracism and health equity efforts with your institution, to ensure they remain protected as part of their engagement with this important work.

We stand in solidarity with other like-minded colleagues such as the Massachusetts Coalition of Health Equity for increased public support of innovative and progressive race-conscious interventions.These interventions attempt to address institution-specific racial inequities which have existed for decades and play into and reinforce larger systemic health and social inequities.

If we are not steadfast in our commitment to these initiatives when it most matters, they will inevitably fail, and we will continue to have a healthcare system that preferentially favors white patients, at the expense of historically minoritized groups.

This is not the side of history that we choose to occupy.

We invite you to make a similar choice by adding your public voice in support of equity and antiracism in medicine.

Sincerely,

Letter Writers:

Qaali Hussein, MD, FACS

Jessica Isom, MD, MPH, Codman Square Health Center, Vision for Equity LLC

Brittani James, MD, The Institute for Antiracism in Medicine

Ramla N. Kasozi, M.B.Ch.B., M.P.H.

Bryan Leyva, MD, University of Minnesota

Imani E McElroy, MD, MPH. Massachusetts General Hospital

Monica R. McLemore PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, Associate Professor, University of California, San Francisco

Ijeoma Nnodim Opara, MD, Wayne State University, OparaSpeaks

Stella Safo, MD, MPH, Just Equity for Health

Supporters:

[NAMES WILL BE UPDATED EVERY FEW HOURS]

Annie Bao, LMFT, Lecturer, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine

Jason Halperin, MD MPH

Bradley Dreifuss, MD FACEP FAAEM, University of Arizona

Chandy John, MD, Indiana University

Vanessa Grubbs, MD, MPH, Alameda Health System

Kimberly Sue, MD, PhD, Yale University School of Medicine

Kemi Babagbemi MD, Weill Cornell Radiology/NY Presbyterian

Jasmine R Marcelin, MD, FIDSA, University of Nebraska Medical Center

Chariya Christmon, MD, MS, Lurie Children’s Hospital

Emily McClain, MD

Matthew R. Hodler, PhD, University of Rhode Island

Laura E. Heyneman, MD, Duke University Medical Center

Bree Alyeska, MD

Toni Biskup, MD, MPH Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Alaska Native Medical Center

Nicole Cagle-Richardson, MD

Bryan T Fisher Sr, MD

Nubia Chong, MD Columbia University

Irmina Haq MD MPH

Sabrina Absalon, PhD, Indiana University School of Medicine

Michelle DallaPiazza MD

Kevin M. Holcomb, MD, Weill-Cornell Medicine

Arghavan Salles, MD, PhD, Stanford University

Andrea Magdalena Oaks

Jennifer F Tseng, MD MPH, Boston University

Marie Gina AugusteKatherine Noel, MD

Tab Cooney, MD, Dana Farber/Boston Children’s and Harvard Medical School

Camille A. Clare MD MPH

Jonathan Pincus MD, Codman Square Health Center

Aysha H Khoury MD, MPH Morehouse School of Medicine

Stephanie Evans, MDAnnie Jobman, MDShimon Cohen, LCSW

Sadé D. Frazier, DO, MS

Kadijah Ray, MDJoia Crear Perry, MD

Nicole Sandonato, LICSW

Oni Blackstock, MD, MHS, Health Justice

Karen Blake-Robinson

Ekta Azad Shah, MD MA MS

Deirdre O’Reilly, MD, MPH, Department of Pediatrics, Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont

Rachel M. Collins, MD. U Florida

Jordan Brooks, MA

Jane Rioseco, Consultant

Jessica Miller, MD

Jeannie Baca, LICSW, Codman Square Health Center

Raphael Apter, LMHC

Alexandra M Goodwin, MD, NYU/Bellevue

Jenni VanderWeele, MD

Pamela Adelstein MD, Family Medicine Medical Director, Codman Square Health Center

Suki Tepperberg MD MPH Boston University School of Medicine

Camara Phyllis Jones, MD, MPH, PhD, University of California, San Francisco

MANISHA SHARMA, MD, FAAFP

Genevieve Daftary, MD, MPH, Codman Square Health Center

Heather Irobunda, MD, FACOG, NYC Health + Hospitals

Swathi Prasad, MDAarti Bhatt, MD UMN

Ada Lin, MD, Nationwide Children’s, The Ohio State University

Natalie Strokes, DO, MS, UMMS- Baystate Medical Center

Erica Mitchell, MD, CCRMC Family Medicine

Dr. Briana Partee, PT, DPT, University of Minnesota

Shannon Montanez, Slalom Healthcare

Mayra Ramírez, MD, LSU

Lucas Ahlquist DPM candidate Kent State College of Podiatric Medicine

Frida Romay Hidalgo, LLB, Head of the cause “Health and Wellness” of Nosotrxs (NGO)

Nasreen Quadri, MD

Melissa Dagher, LICSW, Codman Square Health Center, Dorchester MA

Elisabeth Berger, MD MPH

Denisse Ramirez Forghani MD, Rowedocs

Andrea Westby MD

Makda Majettte MD MPH

Bethany Hamilton, JD, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, The George Washington University

Victor H. Rodriguez, MD, MPH

Ilon Rincon Portas, MD

Laura Wyatt CAA, MMSc, University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics

Jorge Ganem MD, FAAP

Alison Golden BSN, RN, C-EFM, SFNP Mass General Brigham/Frontier Nursing University

Aline Hansen-Guzman, MD, Salud Family Health Centers

Ruth Staus, DNP, MS, APRN, ANP

Jacqueline Baca, MD, The University of Vermont Medical Center

Emily Cohen, MD, Southwestern Women’s Options

Alya Jawaid, MBBS

Kelsey Frey, MD, University of Vermont Medical Center

Sarah French, MD, University of Vermont Medical Center

Anne G. Beckett, MD, MPH, Boston Medical Center

Frantz M. Berthaud, MPH, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Andrea Moore, MSW, LSW

Andrew Meshnick, MD, University of Vermont Children’s Hospital

Samantha Carhart, AT, CSCS, Central Michigan University

Jared A Tomlinson, MD, University of Minnesota

Nusheen Ameenuddin, MD, MOH, MPA, FAAP

Fatuma Barqadle, MD, MACM

Taha Khan, MD, MPH, Boston Combined Residency Program

Russyan Mark Mabeza, MD/MPH Candidate, University of California Los Angeles

Yoleetah Ilodi, MD FACP Northeast Ohio Medical University

Nicholas Moore, MD, University of Vermont Medical Center

Diana Montoya-Williams, MD

Komal Bajaj, MD, MS-HPEd, NYC H+H/Jacobi/NCB

Joe Wright, MD, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program

Leigh Kimberg, MD Professor of Medicine, UCSF; Program Director, PRIME-US

Aishwarya Rajagopalan DO, MHS

Sarah Lentz, MD candidate, University of Minnesota

Eve Bloomgarden, MD

Megan Molnar, MSIII, SUNY Upstate Medical University

Nicole Rosendale, MS, UC San Francisco

Griffin Ayaz Tyree, MD, MAS, Massachusetts General Hospital

Leanna Lewis, LCSW, UC Berkeley/UCSF Joint Medical Program

Monica Hahn, MD, MPH, MS, UCSF, Institute for Healing and Justice in Medicine, PRIME-US

Nathan Chomilo, MD, FAAP, FACP, University of Minnesota Medical School

Felicia Hansell, MD, University of Minnesota

Camellia Lee, Master’s Student, Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Eugenia C. South, MD MS, Assistant Professor, Penn Medicine

Ayrenne Adams, MD MPH, NYC Health + Hospitals

Lauren Ciszak, MD South End Community Health Center

Greg Prouty, Pharm.D.

Luu Doan Ireland, MD, MPH, UMass Memorial Medical Center

Jenevieve Price, BVM&S MRCVS, Companion Pet Partners

Carme Ogando-Saintil, MD, Codman Square Health Center

Shannon Cramm, MD, MPH, Massachusetts General Hospital

Deborah Edberg,MD Rush University

Yuri Cartier, MPH, University of California, San Francisco

Samuel Cohen, DO, BU/BMC

Shae Bardgett, RN, UNC Health Care

Philip Severin, MD, Codman Square Health Center

Katy Backes Kozhimannil, PhD, MPA, University of Minnesota

Therese Anderson, MD FAAP

Daniel Mays, MD, MSc, Indian Health Service

Sonja Raaum, MD, University of Utah

Michael Mensah, MD MPH yale school of medicine

Javier Madrigal, Harvard University & BWH

Stephanie Harman, MD, Stanford University Department of Medicine

Lauren McPherson, MD, MAT, University of Minnesota

Elisabeth Offenberger, RD, LDN, CDCES

Tricia Yeo, MDLauren Holland Catherine Sendek PA-C

Chantel Pinnock, DPM, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth

Alexandra Lane, MD, Cooper University Hospital

Ruchi Mathur, MD, MPH

PRIME-US team at UCSF

Katherine Nash

Katherine Nash MD MHS, Columbia University

Michelle Orengo-McFarlane, MD

Thomas Schmidt, MD, MHS, University of Minnesota

Rachel Issaka, MD, MAS

Nicholas J. Swerdlow, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Sarah Lisker, University of California, San Francisco

Aminta Kouyate, MS, MD Candidate, UCSF

Bridget Keenan, MD PhD, UCSF

Linnea Larson RN, BSN, Loma Linda University Health

Kayla Ringelheim, MPH, MBA, Yale University

Nichole Goodsmith, MD, PhD, UCLA

Nadia Hussein, MD MPHLeslie Castro-Alcina

Tamara Dunn, MD Stanford School of Medicine

Paul Shafer, PhD, Boston University

Askia Dunnon, MD, MPH, University of Colorado

Crysta Chatman, MD, Unity HealthCare

Anuvir Singh, MS4, UCSF SOM

Felicia Tang, MD, OLE Health

Christiane Haeffele, MD, Stanford University

Karen Collins-Powell, MSW, Virgina Commonwealth University

Jerome Henry Taylor, MD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Ashley Lakin, DO, MA, IBCLC

Mitchell P. Butler, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine

Christine Farrell-riley MD

Rebecca Wornhoff, MD, Boston University Medical Center

Star Tiko-Okoye, MD MPH

Yakira Teitel, MD, MPH

Christina Severin, MPH, Community Care Cooperative

Peter Thomas, JD, MA, CHC

Sarah Newhall, MD OHSU

Jen Erbe Leggett, LICSW, CEO, The Leggett Group LLC

Jennifer DebinVickie Shurmur PharmD

David T. O’Gurek, MD, FAAFP

Elise Prehoda, MS3, Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont

Elizabeth Moran, NP, Codman Square Health Center

Nirmal Lumpkin, MD- University of Minnesota Family Medicine residency

Amanda McIntosh, MD

Sujan Gogu, DO, FAAFP, CAQ Sports & Pain Medicine, South Texas Health System Clinics

Patrick Gee, PhD, iAdvocate, Inc.

LaShawn Splane-Wilburn, Founder of HOMAGI for Mental Health Family Caregivers

Elizabeth Tepozteco, University of Minnesota

Kennedy Stafford, MS, OMS-II Rowan University

Nnemdi Azubuko, FNP Codman Square Health Center

Sheetal Khedkar Rao, MD

Cheryl K. Seymour, MD, Maine-Dartmouth FMR

Cynthia Barrows, OT, MD, OTR, Massachusetts Mental Health Center

Rebekah Roll, MD, University of Rochester

Brian White, MD, Loyola University Medical Center

Marie Hobart MD, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School

Marina Del Rios, MD, MS; University of Iowa — Carver College of Medicine

Dr. Nicole Noceto, L.Ac., DACM

Emilie Doan Van, MPH, OMS-3

Don Condie MDStuart Johnson EMTAdriel Rose

Tanvi Avasthi, MSN, MA, RN, CNM/WHNP-BC

Joseph Goddu, MS4, LSUHSC

Kendra Kobrin, MD/PhD, Boston Medical Center

Claire Landwehr, DVM Candidate

Rupa Marya, MD, University of California, San Francisco

Susan Rogers,MD

Esther Tan, FNP, Codman Square Health Center

Kaitlyn Rocha, LCSW, Massachusetts Mental Health Center

Sowda Ahmed, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Vignesh Williams Palaniappan, MD, Hennepin Healthcare

Ashley Rodriguez, MSBill Slaughter MD

Emily Murphy, MD, Johns Hopkins Hospital

David Ansell

Elena Vasquez-Campbell

Mark Adrian Hulipas Bell, D.O.

Kjirsten Yahr, MSSWLisa Diamond, MD, MPHJoshua Huntington

Heather Huntington, MAPH, University of Chicago

Terra Kater, AGNP-CMichelle Helman, MA

Cassondra N. Smith, LICSW

Allyson Hart, MD, MS, Hennepin Healthcare

Leslie Neher, MD

Jen Brown, MPH, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Najaha Musse, DO, University of MN

Emily M. Godfrey MD, MPH, University of Washington

Susan Halbach, MD, MPH University of Washington

Sara Schlotterbeck, MD, Codman Square Health Center

Tinamarie Fioroni, LMHC Codman Square Health Center

Marie Andrée Pierre-Victor, MSW, LICSW Codman Square Health Center

Madeline Beaulieu, BS, Canisius College

Tonia L. Farmer, MD, Lippy Group for ENT

Fathima Mohamed, Medical Student, University of Minnesota

Stephanie Hernandez, MS, Baylor College of Medicine

Hannah Newton, First Year Medical Student, University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson

Martin Garcia, University of Arizona Med-Student

Nancy Connolly, MD, MPH, FACP

Ashley Hooper, RNBridget Keller, MD

Humza Siddiqui, BA, University of California, Berkeley

Sultana Mojadidi (Medical student)

Jennifer Brody, MD, MPH, AAHIVS, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, Harvard Medical School

Alisa L. Niksch, M.D., Tufts Medical Center

Lea Birsch, BSNSeth Congdon MDSophie James

Sheena Joychan, MD, Institute of Living/Hartford HealthCare

Meghna Srinath, MD, MPH, Boston University Medical Center

Kyonna M. Charleston, MSN, APRN, UT Health, McGovern School of Medicine

JoAnne D. Als M.D.Cheri Banks, MPHHilary Hall, MBA

Tinamarie Fioroni LMHC Codman Square Health Center

Katie E. Little, MSHS, PA-C, Cleveland Clinic

Duane Reynolds, MHA, Just Health Collective

Adria Kitchens, Director of Equity and Activism, Out of Hand Theater

Hanan Hashem, MA, Predoctoral Intern, Boston Medical Center

Gabriel Felix, MD, Cambridge Health Alliance

Nicole Kucine, MD, MS; Weill Cornell Medicine

Adam Nader MD cardiologist

Altonia Garrett, MBA, MHA, RN

Chia Hsuan Chang, PhD, Harvard Medical School

Britny R. Brown, PharmD, BCOP, University of Rhode Island

Stephanie Hillman, MNPL, Health Equity Consultant, Seattle, WA

Amber Collins, BSN, CCRN, MPH candidate 2022, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Ellen Nassberg, FACHE, CEO/Consultant

Lisa Epstein RN NYPQ

Salvatore Molica MD, MPH, Codman Square Health Center

Kristina Marchetti, MS, CCC-SLP, University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital

Erin Cohen, MD, St Christopher’s Hospital for Children

Anjali Ferguson, PhD, Virginia Commonwealth University

Krys Foster, MD, MPH, Thomas Jefferson University

Richard Brach, MS4, University of Vermont Medical Center

Madeleine Kane, MS, MS4, University of California, San Francisco

Sarah Nayeem, MD

Kirsten Y Day, MD, Professor of Family Medicine, UCSF

Stefani N. Baca-Atlas, MSW, University of North Carolina

Sarah Mills, MD, MPH, University of Texas Dell Medical School

Abbilyn Miller, PhD

Deborah L. Kaplan, DrPH, MPH, PA, CUNY SPH

Dhruv Srinivasachar MD, Western Michigan University School of Medicine

Nichole Brathwaite-Dingle, MD, MPH candidate, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Sarah Nayeem, MD