Back toMedically reviewed in December 2021
Health equity in communities starts with representation within the medical field and understanding each individual patient's needs.
Transcript
We know that health disparities exist. We're all minority women on this screen. How do we change that narrative? [MUSIC PLAYING]
What sector should be in charge of changing the narrative of how we paint patients?
I think there's definitely a lack of representation in so many different ways. I'm young for having rheumatoid arthritis.
Everybody that's ever heard of that disease, it's usually somebody that they know that's much older.
There has to be a well-rounded effort. You can't have some parts of a problem be resolved
and then other parts still continue to make that harder and harder for the rest of the people. I agree with Afshin on that.
You know, we have to understand the power of collaboration. It's going to be the health care system,
it's going to be government policy, it's going to be working with our communities and our community leaders, it's going
to be making sure that we engage our patients and whatever organizations they're involved in.
It has to be a holistic approach that everyone is an active participant in order to really drive change.
Just having a system where everybody is involved, starting with doing some educational programs
within the community of what certain things might look like, what doctors or providers are out there
that might be able to assist creating a program that will allow that for those who might have those challenges.
To round us out, if there was a philanthropist that said, I'm going to give you unlimited resources,
you can create whatever program you want. Have at it, you can do it. What would it be? You know, this boils down to really taking
the patient as an individual and helping them to navigate throughout the health care
journey are sort of central-- a centralized repository that helps the patient
to navigate based on their diagnosis all aspects of their care, that would be like health care utopia.
I think it would also be really helpful for people with rheumatoid arthritis to have more access to mental health care.
Therapy is not readily available for a lot of patients who do have chronic illnesses. And rather, therapists that know what that
means, to be chronically ill. I think being able to feel heard and understood
would greatly change and improve our quality of lives. I thank you for being vulnerable with us. I thank you for allowing us to learn through your lived life
experience. And hopefully, because of this conversation, we can shift and shape the way medicine is going to be practiced for generations to come.
So thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING]
