With the groundswell of protests surrounding the death of George Floyd, I thought that the American Glaucoma Society should make a statement denouncing racism in its many forms. I serve as secretary of this national organization, and made my thoughts known, but ultimately, the executive committee decided that making such a statement was not in keeping with our mission statement. With the support of the president of AGS, I was able to put together a social justice series sponsored by AGS where we would start to address issues of disparities in medicine.
On Friday October 23, 2020 the first of these programs was held: A Question of Color: Understanding Racial Injustice, Healthcare Disparities, and Glaucoma.
AGS Secretary, Duke Glaucoma Division Chief and Professor of Ophthalmology, Leon W. Herndon Jr., MD and Duke glaucoma fellowship alum, Josh Stein, MD, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Michigan co-moderated the session.
The webinar featured an all-star panel to address disparities in medicine.
- Professor Theodore M Shaw, Director of the Center for Civil Rights at the UNC School of Law discussed the topic of Racism in Society
- Benjamin D. Reese, PhD Former Vice President for Institutional Equity at Duke discussed the topic of Racism in Medicine
- Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS, Dean Emeritus of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health discussed the topic of Healthcare Disparities in Ophthalmology.
- Angela Elam, MD Clinical Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Michigan and Caroline Fisher, MD Clinical Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Stanford University joined the panel for a Q&A discussion.
Open and active discussion was held with recommendations made for tackling these healthcare concern.
Action Items:
- Create teams of AGS members and others who are interested in further exploring these issues.
- Tap into sources of Big Data to perform some analyses comparing care quality and outcomes for glaucoma and other ocular diseases.
On Friday January 8, 2021 the second of these programs was held: A Question of Color: Ask the Experts, Where Do We Go from Here?
This webinar featured amazing experts, moderators, and panelists for an intimate discussion and Q&A session tackling the implications of social injustice and healthcare disparities for society, education, and medicine.
Experts:
- Michael V. Drake, MD, 21st President of the University of California
- Eve J. Higginbotham SM, MD, ML, Vice Dean for Penn Medicine Office of Inclusion and Diversity, Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics, Professor of Ophthalmology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
- M. Roy Wilson, MD, MS, President, Wayne State University
Moderators:
- Donald L. Budenz, MD, MPH, Kittner Family Distinguished Professor, Chair, Department of Ophthalmology & President, American Glaucoma Society
- Ann Caroline Fisher, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, Byers Eye Institute at Stanford University, Director Diversity, Equity, Inclusion for Ophthalmology Department at Byers
Panelists:
- Kirsten L. Simmons, MH Sc, Medical Student (MS4), Duke university
- Chase A. Liaboe, MD, Resident, Ophthalmology, PGY-4, University of Minnesota
- Connie Sears, MD, 2nd-Year Resident, Stanford University
The American Glaucoma Society (AGS) will host part three of the webinar series "Social Justice and Healthcare Disparities" featuring guest speakers and panelist from our Asian American AGS community. This session "The Asian-American Glass Ceiling and Behind the COVID Curtain of Biases Toward Asians" will be held Friday, June 25th at 5pm EST.
Presenters:
- Sophia Antoun, MA, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Education Specialist at Ohio State's Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Presentation Title: Asian American: Our history, our experiences, our identity.
- Sayako Moroi, MD, PhDChair, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Ohio State University, Presentation Title: The Myth of the “Model Minority”: Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Representation in Medicine and Health Care Disparities
- Hendry Ton, MD, MS, Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, University of California, Davis, Presentation Title: Addressing Anti-Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Hate: Healing and Resilience.
Panelists:
OPHTHALMOLOGY RESIDENTS
- Annie Wong, MD, University of Michigan
- Rebecca Chen, MD, Cleveland Clinic
GLAUCOMA FELLOW
- James Liu, MD, Duke University
GLAUCOMA SPECIALISTS
- Jella An, MD, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Missouri,
- Ta Chen Peter Chang, MD, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology Bascom Palmer