Sponsored By J&J INNOVATIVE MEDICINE
Presented By JaBaris D. Swain, Medical Executive, Health Systems Integration
The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
Dr. Shelina Ramnarine, Director Of Our Race To Health Equity Community Engagement at Johnson Johnson
Dr. JaBaris D. Swain and Dr. Shelina Ramnarine highlighted how inclusive medical illustrations can aid confidence and trust in healthcare professionals at the Black Health Matters Spring Summit.
They began by asking the audience how often they have encountered medical imagery that reflects them. The response was predictably underwhelming. “Imagine how challenging it must be when you go into the doctor to get care and you’re not even represented in that setting,” said Dr. Ramnarine.
“Forty-seven percent of dermatologists and dermatological residents in the U.S. thought their training was inadequate for preparing them to identify and treat conditions on dark skin. That’s a high percentage. That’s almost half,” she continued. “We have another statistic that says 64.6 percent of medical respondents note that access to inclusive medical illustrations would significantly help them diagnose and treat patients of color.”
She stressed the value of a proper education. “We need to ensure that all medical professionals that we see can treat Black and Hispanic patients.”
Dr. Ramnarine noted that increasing the rate of professionals entering the field with this knowledge would also be useful. “Patients of color, we know, are more likely to seek help from practitioners that look like them because they can understand and relate. They know what things look like on that skin, so we do a lot of work diversifying the pipeline of healthcare professionals.”
She explained how Johnson & Johnson is helping to change the materials available to educate doctors and students. “Illustrate Change is an initiative to build the largest medical library of medical illustrations. So, it started with 25 illustrations and some research we were doing on maternal mortality in Atlanta. We were trying to understand why the rates of maternal mortality are higher in Black women. One of the things that came out of the market research was that patients didn’t feel seen when they went to the doctor’s office because no imagery represented them,” said Dr. Ramnarine.
She shared that these resources are free and accessible. “These illustrations are available on the website free of use. For those of you who may work at a health center or individuals who are patient-facing, advocate organizations, the illustrations are available to download and use in whatever setting you like.”
The illustrations aid patients as well. “If you’re a patient and you’re trying to understand what something looks like for me, and we know that breast cancer, for example, is different in black women, they tend to get triple-negative breast cancer. You want illustrations that you can relate to and look like that on your skin,” she said. “When patients see themselves depicted in medical illustrations, they feel understood.”
Dr. Swain, who helped work on the site, demonstrated the need for the initiative by asking for audience participation. “I challenge everyone if to take a moment to Google psoriasis,” he said. “When you do it, all the images will be of White skin.”
“Think about when you go to a physician or a dermatologist, and you show them your hand or show them, pull up your shirt and show them a rash, you know, a lot of them will have to go to a medical resource, to try to identify what the rash is but the overwhelming majority of those resources are depicted on white skin,” he continued. He recounted a childhood story to drive home further his point. “This sounds crazy, but I remember when I was growing up, a young woman had a darker complexion on the back of her neck, and people were like, oh, they need to shower, and she’s not clean. She needs to wipe her neck. But that actually is an indication called acanthosis nigricans, and it’s an indication that the patient may have diabetes,” he said. “If that’s not depicted in an illustration or graphic, then that can be missed.”
Learn more about Ilustrate Change here.
