208. Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine with guest Dr. Uche Blackstock

We're joined this week by Dr. Uche Blackstock to discuss her memoir Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine. Legacy is more than an account of Dr. Blackstock's journey to and in healthcare, it is also a love letter to her mother (the "original" Dr. Blackstock) and her community. As you can hear in our conversation, Legacy is also a wakeup call to all who read it, especially those in healthcare, that racism is more than unjust - it can be deadly. 

Dr. Blackstock received both undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University, making her and her twin sister, Oni, the first Black mother-daughter legacy graduates from Harvard Medical School. As an ER physician, and later as a professor in academic medicine, Dr. Blackstock became profoundly aware of the systemic barriers that Black patients and physicians continue to face.

Dr. Blackstock's generational memoir, LEGACY: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, at once a searing indictment of our healthcare system, a generational family memoir, and a call to action, is Dr. Blackstock’s odyssey from child to medical student to practicing physician—to finally seizing her own power as a health equity advocate against the backdrop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Dr. Uché Blackstock is the founder and Chief Advisor of Advancing Health Equity (AHE), founded in 2019 with the mission of partnering with healthcare organizations to dismantle racism in healthcare and to close the gap in racial health inequities. Advancing Health Equity has helped major companies, hospitals, and health systems create strategic plans for promoting equitable health care moving forward.

Where to find Dr. Blackstock:

Websites: www.ucheblackstock.com, www.advancinghealthequity.com

IG: ucheblackstockmd

LinkedIn: Uché Blackstock

X: uche_blackstock