Relevance of the George Cleveland Hall Society

I hope you read my last post about Dr. George Cleveland Hall. He was an awesome individual.

When I was in undergrad as a pre-med researcher I had the opportunity to attend a number of conferences to present research and meet other pre-med students. While at these conferences I to notice that there were not many minorities pursuing careers medicine. After graduating and attending a post-bacc program at Harvard Medical School I did not see many African Amercian physicians in the teaching hospitals there. I began to contemplate why was this so. And as I began to look into this I came across some research that was published in the National Medical Association Journal. During the study Dr. Vijaya Rao and Dr. Glenn Flores identified barriers for African Americans high school students to pursue a career as a physician. These barriers were:

• Financial Challenges
• Time Commitment
• Stress/Difficulty
• Limited Opportunities and Exposure to Medicine
• Lack of Family Support
• Lack of Peer Support
• Perceptions of Physicians
• Lack of Knowledge about Medicine
• Lack of Interest
• Negative Normative Cultural Values and Tradition
• Perceived Racism in the Medical Field and Healthcare Institutions

When I learned of this I was immediately moved to do something to begin breaking down these sociological/psychological barriers. As a result of the aforementioned barriers I decided to start the George Cleveland Hall Society (GCHS). This blog will be the first tool to begin tackling these issues. As a Black American who has recently been accepted to medical school and on my way to becoming a physician scientist, I am very passionate about encouraging other minority to students to pursue careers in medicine. CGHS has come to order! I invite you all to share your encouraging stories, testimonies, hopes, and dreams here in the society. Dr. Hall saw a vision of a diverse healthcare system and the society will help to make sure that comes to fruition.