In the near future, five Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) will have medical schools.
Xavier, baby.
Yes, Xavier University of Louisiana, located in New Orleans, will soon become the fifth historically Black college or university (HBCU) to have a medical school.
University president Reynold Verret said, The Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine will train doctors in cultural competencies.
Lottie L. Joiner of The Grio reported, “Xavier University of Louisiana and Ochsner Health leaders signed a legal agreement (April 29) to create the nation’s fifth HBCU allopathic medical school, a move that physicians assert can mitigate disparities that kill Black people with some diseases two times more than others.”
The New Orleans-based medical school would become the first HBCU medical school on the Gulf Coast.
Educating more future doctors of color is very important because only six percent of doctors are Black.
Not having many doctors in the Black community may lead to deadly and dismal outcomes for Black medical patients.
Joiner reported, “The CDC reports that Black people are less likely than White people to be current on screenings for breast, cervical and colon cancer. And while White women are more likely to get breast cancer, Black women are 40% more likely to die from it. Even when adjusted for tumor stage when diagnosed with colon cancer, Black people are 20% more likely to die from colon cancer within five years of diagnosis. And Black men are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer than other men.”
Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association said, “This is a pathway to reduce and hopefully, ultimately eliminate health care disparities.”
Referencing an article about the effects of having access to a Black doctor, Lawson, added, “Just having a Black physician in the county prolonged the lives of not just Black folks, but White folks, too.”
Xavier, which holds the distinction of being the only Catholic HBCU, already boasts of being among the top 10 colleges to send Black American students to medical school.
Furthermore, the HBCUs pharmacy school holds the honor of being among the top producers of Black pharmacists.
“Xavier’s excellence in undergrad and in STEM and being able to put more diverse people into medical school, Ochsner’s excellence in residencies and fellowships and an academic medical center, the two coming together with a shared mission to train more Black and Brown physicians for the United States just makes sense,” said Leo Seoane, executive vice president and chief academic officer at Ochsner.
The opening date for the new medical school at Xavier University has not been set.
Accreditation will take approximately three years.
The first class of the new medical school will consist of about 50 students.
Verret added the new medical school will teach students how to be compassionate about the struggles of their patients and to speak to those patients in the correct tone.
Many Black medical patients, and their loved-ones, often complain that they do not get adequate treatment from healthcare providers who are not Black.
Furthermore, many Black patients complain that they often must change the way they speak and dress so that doctors will understand them and can relate to them.
Verret said, “Education in medicine is seeing medicine as not just a technological, scientific field. It is a field that there’s a humanistic dimension of medicine, which we must use as well.”
Seoane said that the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine will be governed by a board that consists of 50 percent from Ochsner and 50 percent from Xavier.
Group physicians from Ochsner will become faculty members as assistant professors, associate professors and professors.
Ochsner already has a huge footprint in the “Pelican State” because it is the largest healthcare provider in the state.
It serves more than one million people in the Gulf Coast region of the country.
Lawson said, “For a medical school, you need that hospital relationship. That’s been one of the struggles, making sure you have that clinical site.”
Currently, 189 predominantly White institutions (PWI) have medical schools.
The four current HBCUs with medical schools are Meharry Medical College, Howard University College of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.
“Being a person who matriculated through medical school in a PWI…I clocked 18 hours of study a day. That can be isolating. You need morale boosts. You need study groups. You want to be able to relax around comrades where you don’t have to code switch. These are cultural things that are important,” said Lawson.
Ochsner Health CEO Pete November said, “Ochsner Health is committed to meeting the needs of the diverse communities we serve, and we are honored to continue our work with Xavier University of Louisiana to improve the health and wellbeing of New Orleans, our state and region.”
November continued, “Because of their circumstances, whatever it is, they don’t hope, don’t have the hope that someday they, too, can be sitting here with one of those white coats, with the ability to take care of people. We are here today to give that young man or woman hope.”
