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    Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine
    Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine
    Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine
    Audiobook8 hours

    Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine

    Written by Damon Tweedy, M.D.

    Narrated by Corey Allen

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S TOP TEN NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR

    A LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK SELECTION • A BOOKLIST EDITORS' CHOICE BOOK SELECTION

    One doctor's passionate and profound memoir of his experience grappling with race, bias, and the unique health problems of black Americans

    When Damon Tweedy begins medical school, he envisions a bright future where his segregated, working-class background will become largely irrelevant. Instead, he finds that he has joined a new world where race is front and center. The recipient of a scholarship designed to increase black student enrollment, Tweedy soon meets a professor who bluntly questions whether he belongs in medical school, a moment that crystallizes the challenges he will face throughout his career. Making matters worse, in lecture after lecture the common refrain for numerous diseases resounds, “More common in blacks than in whites.”

    Black Man in a White Coat examines the complex ways in which both black doctors and patients must navigate the difficult and often contradictory terrain of race and medicine. As Tweedy transforms from student to practicing physician, he discovers how often race influences his encounters with patients. Through their stories, he illustrates the complex social, cultural, and economic factors at the root of many health problems in the black community. These issues take ongreater meaning when Tweedy is himself diagnosed with a chronic disease far more common among black people. In this powerful, moving, and deeply empathic book, Tweedy explores the challenges confronting black doctors, and the disproportionate health burdens faced by black patients, ultimately seeking a way forward to better treatment and more compassionate care.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateSep 8, 2015
    ISBN9781501902086
    Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine

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    Reviews for Black Man in a White Coat

    4/5

    77 ratings10 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I listened almost the whole way through! Incredibly engaging and important!
    • 3/5
      Tweedy writes of his experience in the medical profession, a black man amongst mostly white fellow students and teachers. He shares his experiences from medical school, residency, his internship and his practice. I enjoyed this story, and was appalled at the medical statistics for black minorities and certain diseases. While I did not learn anything radically new, still, Tweedy is a man of compassion and I enjoyed hearing his perspective. I was moved by a few of his stories and it is a good reminder to me not to judge so quickly. And itt made for a good book discussion.
    • 5/5
      I am so glad to have stumbled across this book! I learned so much about the medical profession after listening to the story. The stories about the author’s patients were both heart wrenching and heartwarming.
    • 4/5
      “By sharing my story, as well as the stories of some of the patients I’ve met over the past fifteen years, I hope to humanize the dire statistics and bitter racial debates and paint a fuller picture of the experiences of black patients, as well as that of the black doctors who navigate between the black community and the predominately white medical world.” – Damon Tweedy, M.D., Black Man in a White Coat

      Memoir about Damon Tweedy’s journey in medicine, from his college enrollment through internship and selection of a field of specialization. This book combines a personal story of navigating medical school with accounts of (mostly) black people facing significant health issues. He recounts stories of his memorable patients, the impact of race on their treatment, and racial biases he encountered personally. He also challenges his own perceptions of race and engages in self-reflection.

      Many of the difficulties in the medical field have to do with the socioeconomic background of the patients and the US healthcare system. Tweedy cites many statistics (with sources and notes cited in the appendix) to highlight some of the primary areas of concern, such as:

      “As with so many societal problems, blacks as a group suffer to the largest extent, being nearly twice as likely as white Americans to live without health insurance. And while obtaining health insurance alone does not fix the health problems of the poor, it makes a real difference. A 2007 study found that previously uninsured adults, in particular those with cardiovascular disease or diabetes, reported improved health over a seven-year follow-up period after obtaining Medicare coverage at age sixty-five.”

      Aside from informative statistics, he makes a strong case for lifestyle choices as a primary factor in longevity. He points out the need for more black doctors, and the importance of making a human connection with the patient, regardless of racial background: “A big part of the solution is discarding your assumptions and connecting with each patient as a person. Race, while certainly a powerful influence, by itself doesn’t guarantee a human connection any more than any other factor.”

      While it is impossible for one individual to solve racial prejudice and the US healthcare woes, he points out areas where awareness can make a difference. I feel books like this are valuable in helping view the world through the lens of another person’s experience. It is written in a manner easily understood by a person without a medical background. I found it enlightening and worthwhile.
    • 4/5
      The book was an easy read with a lot of documented information woven into the narrative. It is an account of the struggles of a black doctor dealing with both black and white patients. Well worth reading.
    • 5/5
      Extraordinary!! Everyone should read this book. Moving and very thought-provoking memoir from a black doctor who grew up in DC area, went to medical school at Duke, and worked in rural clinics, Duke hospital, and inner city Grady hospital (trauma center in Atlanta). A lot to learn here about medical education, communication between doctors and patients, and effects of race and socioeconomics on health and health care delivery. Insightful, poetic, self-aware about the judgments we make about ourselves and others, the judgments they make about themselves and us, and how all of that shapes our health and our relationships.
    • 4/5
      Enlightening and informative. Dr. Tweet sheds light on a tricky subject which isn't cut and dry.
    • 4/5
      Memoir of Tweedy’s education as a doctor, grappling with microaggressions from teachers and patients and learning what his race could and couldn’t do in enabling him to connect with his mostly poor, black patients. A good read, albeit saddening.
    • 4/5
      The subtitle for this memoir is A doctor’s reflections on race and medicine and that’s just what it is. It isn’t a screed or a rant or an indictment. It is one person’s experience and perception and overall it is well done although you could apply much the same to any other group who isn’t white and male. Take medical studies or drug trials. Almost all of them are done one men because women are too “hard” because of our hormones. You know, those wholly unfathomable creatures; the pre and post-menopausal woman. The book didn’t shed light on anything new, but reminds readers that for all the progress we’ve made in the last few decades, there are still imbalances and biases in the system. My jaw literally dropped when he related the story of his med school professor assuming he’d come to the classroom to fix the lights. It reminded me of a time or two when I was turned to in a meeting or similar forum and asked to get lunch or coffee. Almost as much as race, class and socio-economic factors play big roles in a person’s health care in the US. Time and time again he describes the dividing factors of the uninsured, the privately insured and those on Medicare or Medicaid. It is a complex situation that leaves most people suffering needlessly. I’m not sure what the recent “Obamacare” program was supposed to have addressed, but it hardly seems adequate in Tweedy’s experience. People who need the relief of proper medical care are denied because they make too much money even when they are barely earning a subsistence wage. That is ridiculous and I hope something changes. The end is hopeful, too. Tweedy eventually lands on psychiatry for his area of practice and learns to overcome his own prejudices to reach especially difficult patients; making differences in lives. He’s an unusually sensitive doctor in my estimation, and he questions himself frequently, adjusting his attitude and viewpoint as he learns more. Refreshing. Oh and I loved the shout out to Stephen L. Carter, a favorite novelist of mine. He, too, has experienced the challenges of being part of the Darker Nation as he calls it, and no doubt Tweedy relates to his circumstances well.
    • 5/5
      Black Man in a White Coat is Damon Tweedy’s memoir of his experience as a black man getting into medical school up through becoming a practicing physician. At the very beginning of medical school, one of his professors mistook him for a maintenance worker even though he was dressed nicely and had been in his class for a month. Tweedy recounts his embarrassment, even though it was the professor who should have been embarrassed. He also talks about the mixed emotions he felt about a form of affirmative action being one of the reasons that he was admitted to Duke medical school.Once he starts interacting with patients, he has a variety of experiences related to race that make him aware of the issues that both black doctors and black patients face. Some of them aren’t too surprising (although still horrible), like the white patient who didn’t want a black doctor. Some were very surprising to me. For instance, he encountered a black patient who didn’t want a black doctor. Tweedy backs up his personal examples with research that shows whatever issues he encounters exist on a larger scale. They are not isolated incidents experienced only by him.Tweedy writes about medical information in an accessible manner with a conversational tone. My eyes were opened to race related issues in the medical field that I hadn’t previously considered. This is a great memoir that I highly recommend.