The Reckoning
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UCLA Health David Geffen School of Medicine WINTER 2021 THE RECKONING Spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic and movement toward racial justice, health care institutions like UCLA Health are examining past inequities and taking necessary steps to create change. WINTER 2021 VOLUME 41 NUMBER 1 Departments News + Notes Share your 02 10 thoughts with us Leadership The Cutting Edge A publication of Now is the time to begin the work of undoing systemic A singer reclaims her voice with a new pair of lungs. UCLA Health and racial inequity in health care. Your input is important, so David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA BY DR. JOHN C. MAZZIOTTA, JOHNESE SPISSO please give us your comments AND DR. KELSEY C. MARTIN VICE CHANCELLOR, UCLA HEALTH SCIENCES and feedback. Include your CEO, UCLA HEALTH 20 name, email address, city and John C. Mazziotta, MD (RES ’81, FEL ’83), PhD Conversation state of residence and, if you PRESIDENT, UCLA HEALTH 04 A groundbreaking partnership closes in on a new era of are a UCLA medical alum CEO, UCLA HOSPITAL SYSTEM precision medicine and personalized health care. ASSOCIATE VICE CHANCELLOR, UCLA HEALTH SCIENCES Reflection (MD, PhD, Resident and/or Johnese Spisso, MPA Los Angeles reaches a crisis in the wake of politicized Fellow), your degree(s) and DEAN, DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT UCLA health interventions. BY DR. TARA VIJAYAN graduation year(s). Letters Kelsey C. Martin, MD, PhD Photo: Courtesy of Dr. S. Thomas Carmichael 24 and/or comments may be CHIEF OF COMMUNICATIONS Rhonda L. Curry Spotlight 56 edited for clarity and/or length. Dr. Yalda Afshar answers a few questions. CHIEF OF MARKETING Illustration: Bill Robles Faculty Tanya E. Andreadis Getting away from it all. Submit letters to: EDITOR 38 BY DAN GORDON editormedicine@ David Greenwald mednet.ucla.edu 64 “This Is Our Moment” NEWS EDITOR Scenes of the pandemic from the ICU. Diya Chacko Epilogue An ICU physician says goodbye to a beloved patient. DESIGN & ART DIRECTION uclahealth.org/getsocial BY DR. TISHA WANG Rent Control Creative CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Sandy Cohen Andrea Collier Features Judy Fortin To read U Magazine online, Dan Gordon go to: uclahealth.org/ Julie Kirst u-magazine Jane Murcia Keith Norris, MD (FEL ’85), PhD Tara Vijayan, MD To subscribe to receive Tisha Wang, MD (RES ’05, FEL ’08) U Magazine digitally, Mark Wheeler Photo: Courtesy of 15/40 Productions go to: uclahealth.org/ u-magazine/subscribe EDITORIAL ADVISORY CO-CHAIRS Clarence H. Braddock III, MD, MPH Patrick T. Dowling, MD Patients, or the families Photo: Ann Johansson of patients, quoted and/or EDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE photographed or pictured Benjamin J. Ansell, MD ’92 (RES ’95) 06 in this publication have Sherin U. Devaskar, MD Steven M. Dubinett, MD (RES ’84) given their consent to Dieter R. Enzmann, MD Moments have their names and/ Brandon Koretz, MD (RES ’99, FEL ’00) The first health care workers at UCLA receive the or images used and their Kelsey C. Martin, MD, PhD COVID-19 vaccine. stories told. Bartly J. Mondino, MD BY SANDY COHEN Janet P. Pregler, MD Thomas B. Strouse, MD (RES ’91) Lindsey Williams Illustration: Noma Bar Illustration: Noma Bar Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Jessica Rexach © Copyright 2021 by The Regents of the University of California. Permission to reprint 08 26 48 58 may be granted by contacting the editor, U Magazine, 10880 Wilshire Blvd., Kids’ Space The Reckoning How to Build a Vaccine Friends Suite 1450, Los Angeles, CA 90095-6923. E-mail: [email protected] Young patients at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital share The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the realities of long- Once the coronavirus pandemic took hold, the race was on Making a difference through philanthropy. their art on-air. standing racial inequities in the American health care system. to develop a vaccine. Cover Illustration: Noma Bar BY JANE MURCIA BY ANDREA COLLIER BY MARK WHEELER Printed on recycled paper. LEADERSHIP reinforce and repeat the message that health disparities exist and ship, the health system and school of medicine are working to knit that health equity benefits everyone.” together our common concerns and goals to achieve the broadest These are concerns of national scope. What can we do at an in- possible impact. stitutional level? UCLA Health System and the David Geffen School It is a time for us to ask ourselves a critical question: “What have of Medicine at UCLA are taking significant steps to address these we done today to dismantle injustice and inequity?” Such a question Now Is the Time issues. As leaders, we begin by acknowledging our past failings, is front and center in the work that we do as a public institution to that we collectively have not done enough to actively address and ensure that patients from all walks of life have access to care and In the effort to undo systemic racial inequity in health care, dismantle the structures and processes that perpetuate inequality. quality health outcomes, that we build a diverse workforce reflective We have started by creating equity and anti-racism frameworks of our community within a workplace structure that is fair and the time for half-measures is over. Undoing these injustices within both the health system and school of medicine; we are equitable, and that we train the next generations of physicians and will not happen overnight. It is the work of a lifetime. examining and revising our approaches to health-care delivery medical scientists in the core values of diversity and inclusion. to underserved populations; developing and implementing new Change will not happen overnight. This work we commit to now policies guiding how we build a more diverse workforce through will be the work of a lifetime, an ongoing, evolving effort during recruitment, retention and promotion of faculty and staff of color; which we must continually examine where we can best work to It is stunning, and immeasurably sad, that 55 years after Dr. recent NBC News report: “The people who need it the most are the make the biggest difference, both internally at an institutional level, Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke before the Medical Committee for same who don’t trust it. Without considering racial equity, we deepen as well as for the community. Human Rights and proclaimed, “Of all the forms of inequality, the cracks that systemic racism has already created in our health This is a moment of opportunity, one Now is the time for us — as an institution and as individuals injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane,” we care system.” To which UCLA’s Vickie Mays, director of the UCLA that opens the door wider for us to — to step up to address these critical issues of racial inequity and as a nation still are wrestling with discrimination. Center on Research, Innovation, Training and Education for Minority injustice within our society. We at UCLA Health System and the There is a lot of work that needs to be done to right these Health Disparities Solutions, added: “Disparities beget disparities.” deliver on our mission of providing David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA pledge to do our part. wrongs. The legacy of The medical com- leading-edge clinical care, research racial inequality and, in munity has come to and education through a lens that John C. Mazziotta, MD (RES ’81, FEL ’83), PhD some cases, outright recognize the damage Vice Chancellor, UCLA Health Sciences racism in health care of that has been caused looks more closely at the issues and CEO, UCLA Health which Dr. King spoke has by our past inequity. In challenges of health-care disparities not only undermined the November, the House that exist in Los Angeles and our health of vast numbers of Delegates of the of people, it has created American Medical broader community. fear and suspicion among Association (AMA) many in our communi- adopted a new policy and creating structures to train students and implement workplace Johnese Spisso, MPA ties. This is exacerbated acknowledging that reforms within an anti-racism framework. You can read more President, UCLA Health in the current climate, in racism and uncon- about these efforts in this issue (“The Reckoning,” page 26). CEO, UCLA Hospital System which, for many of our scious bias within Bringing about cultural change is difficult, but it is necessary. Associate Vice Chancellor, UCLA Health Sciences fellow citizens, science medical research and Each year in August we tell our incoming medical students that they itself has become sus- health-care delivery should be a thermostat and not a thermometer. Today, that is as pect. Even now, as we roll Photo: Nick Carranza have caused, and con- true for all of us throughout the institutions of the UCLA Health Sys- out vaccines to address tinue to cause, harm tem and David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA as it is to those the horrendous COVID-19 pandemic, which we all have endured to marginalized communities and society as a whole, and that students. It is not enough for us to simply monitor the environment Kelsey C. Martin, MD, PhD over this past year, people in Black and Latino communities racism, in its systemic, cultural, interpersonal and other forms, and the climate; we now must be a part of the process that sets the Dean, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA — the communities that have been hit hardest by this pandemic is a serious threat to public health and the advancement of health climate and defines the environment. — are, after a long and tortured history of unequal access to care equity, and a barrier to appropriate medical care.