CUNY Med’s mission fits in Black History Month

Every day, I board the M101 bus on the East Side for my five-mile, half-hour commute to the CUNY School of Medicine in Harlem, where I am dean. The neighborhoods connected by this bus line offer a striking illustration of the health disparities that persist in our city and country. On the Upper East Side, a person can expect to live 87 years — nine years more than the citywide average — while a person in Central Harlem can expect to live 77 years. Babies born on the Upper East Side are five times more likely than their Harlem neighbors to survive birth. It is unconscionable that Black women statewide die in childbirth about three times the rate of white women and an indictment of the health care ecosystem. Black History Month recognizes and celebrates the many ways African-Americans have enriched and advanced the U.S. It is also an occasion to take stock of health disparities while taking action to improve the health of all neighborhoods on the M101 circuit. At the heart of these entrenched inequities is a vast and growing shortage of primary care and diverse physicians. Without access to excellent, compassionate primary care, people often go untreated...