Over 1,000 hours. That’s the same amount of time we, both black female doctors in Los Angeles, spent sitting in the chair of our friend and hairstylist Sharone.
It’s not easy to find a great stylist who understands black hair, but Sharone has the talent. When Medel met Sharone 17 years ago, she knew they hit it off, and she’s been styling her ever since.
When Medel began working with Elaine at MLK Community Healthcare, Elaine knew he was an excellent physician who was critical to her hospital’s mission to provide quality care to South Los Angeles. I knew. But there was one thing she needed to know. Who styled her Medel’s hair? She thought her Medel’s hair looked great because she wanted to cherish the natural texture of her own hair. It didn’t take long before she was sitting in Sharone’s chair too.
Over the years, the three of us became friends, for a few hours at a time every two weeks. We trusted and trusted Sharone, her mother and grandmother, and her example of grace and professionalism. One year it’s curly highlights and the next it’s a smooth blowout. Sharone understood that in a world that judges black women harshly, her appearance matters. She took great care of us.
Then, a few years ago, Sharone discovered a lump in her breast. Now it was our turn to take care of her.
As physicians working to change America’s fragmented and unequal health care system, we know how serious breast cancer is for Black women. Although prevalence is slightly lower, outcomes are much worse; 41% higher mortality rate than white women. We had to intervene.
We also understand the legitimate reasons why Black Americans distrust the health care system and how that can interfere with care. According to recent research, 30 percent of black women Women have reported abuse during maternity care, and early research has linked experiences of racism to pregnancy complications.
The earliest appointment that Sharone could make to see her primary care physician was several weeks away. A few weeks can mean the difference between life and death. Delays in diagnosis are a major contributor to disparities in breast cancer outcomes.
Elaine arranged for Sharone to see a doctor from her medical group immediately. Doctors of color listened to Sharone’s concerns and took action. He immediately ordered a mammogram and within a few days she was referred for a biopsy.
The biopsy didn’t go so smoothly. After a long drive, Sharone’s experience was less than ideal. Specialists told Sharone they would implant a metal marker in his chest, but it could not be removed. Sharone felt uncomfortable and had doubts. Metal marker? What was that for? The doctor became combative and told her she needed to do what she was told.
Sharone consented to the biopsy. She knew she needed a quick diagnosis. However, she disagreed with Marker. She left her experience feeling guarded, ignored, and unheard.
“I felt like I was facing death and I was running out of options,” she said. “I needed to be treated as a human being with opinions and feelings. I had to trust others with my life, but all I could protect was my ability to choose.” was.”
Trust in medical care is often one-sided. As physicians, we expect our expertise to be trusted and respected. Too often, physicians ignore patients’ expertise, perspectives, and preferences.
Sharon calls this a positioning issue rather than a trust issue. What worked for her was when doctors and patients respected each other’s expertise and came together as human beings. Physicians as medical experts and patients as experts in their own experience.
The ideal physician-patient positioning is to place the patient’s concerns and preferences front and center, listen respectfully to the patient, and gain trust. It helps that doctors, who have experienced first-hand the unique pressures and prejudices that people of color encounter in predominantly white cultures, can see like the patients they serve. But this lesson applies to all of us.
Shortly after Sharone’s biopsy, we heard heartbreaking news. She had triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive and difficult to treat type of breast cancer. Her tumor was at stage 2, but had not yet spread to other parts of her body. For Sharone, it was important that she receive treatment as soon as possible.
Within a week, Medel helped Sharone receive treatment at UCLA Health.
Medel accompanied Sharone to several medical appointments and served as a mediator and supporter. “They were excellent doctors,” Sharon later told us. “Each doctor came and explained the process. They were very professional.”
But there were also setbacks.
Sharone had an allergic reaction to the first treatment. “The first day of chemotherapy, I almost died,” she said. “After that, I didn’t want to continue, but I knew I had to. I knew that as long as I had breath, I would continue to fight for my life and her family.”
Then, Sharone’s treatment plan changed. Her body wasn’t reacting fast enough. Her doctor recommended her two more treatments. Chemotherapy was taxing on her body and mind, and Sharone wasn’t sure if she needed it all. We gently encouraged her. Sharone has completed her treatment.
Two years after her initial diagnosis, Sharone is now healthy. She caught the cancer before it spread and received effective treatment quickly.
Our attorney also helped her continue her treatment. Having her friend guide her through the difficult maze of the health care system helped prevent Sharone from finding herself in another situation. Thousands of black women lost too soon I get breast cancer every year.
But the fact that we had to intervene shows that our system is broken and needs to change.
Everyone deserves access to quality care, empathetic physicians, and a supportive community. Without these, health inequities among Black women and other people of color will continue.
“If you two hadn’t been there to support me and speed things up, I probably would have gotten treatment,” Sharone told Us. “But I don’t think I would have survived.”
Dr. Elaine Batclor runs the award-winning MLK Community Healthcare in South Los Angeles. atlantic, washington post and Los Angeles Times.
Dr. Medelle Briggs Maronson is director of health equity, diversity, and inclusion for the UCLA Health System and associate professor of emergency medicine at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine.
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