VIDEO: Expert calls on dermatologists to practice anti-racism with patients
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ORLANDO — In an Healio video exclusive, Jeanine Downie, MD, FAAD, discussed the importance of anti-racism and diversity as well as how to carry out anti-racism as a dermatologist.
Downie, director of image Dermatology PC and assistant attending at Mountainside and Overlook hospitals, spoke on this topic at the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery Annual Meeting.
“We doctors are leaders of our society and we are leaders of our community,” Downie told Healio. “We need to do better to help society move forward.”
In what began as a normal office visit, Downie shared a story of when she was put in the position to confront a patient who made a racist remark — a situation that exemplifies antiracism.
“Rather than let her even finish her sentence, I stopped her and said, ‘Wait, we cannot talk about this, we cannot have this discussion,’” Downie said. “I stopped her dead in her tracks and that is a bit about what being an anti-racist is all about.”