Black Male Physician

The Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO recently reported on the lack of Black male doctors in the Commonwealth — and some of the initiatives at EVMS aimed at recruiting, training and supporting the next generation of minority physicians.

In the story, Reporter Leah Small cited 2021 data from the Association of American Medical Colleges showing that only about 8% of Virginia’s roughly 22,800 active physicians identify as African American, making the “ratio of Black doctors to Black patients in the state… about one to 1,000.”

Small highlighted EVMS as a medical school in the state working to effect change in this area.

L.D. Britt, MD, MPH, the Edward J. Brickhouse Chair in Surgery, the Henry Ford Professor of Surgery, Chair of EVMS Surgery and Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs, said many of the programs at EVMS are focused on the importance of mentorship, along with early and sustained access to educational opportunities and financial backing.

Those efforts include, among many others, EVMS endowed scholarships that provide financial support to students from underrepresented backgrounds and initiatives such as The L.D. Britt Premedical Scholars program, which pairs promising students from Norfolk State and Hampton University with Black physician mentors at EVMS.

The work to recruit Black providers for critical roles across the country’s healthcare industry is important and ongoing, Dr. Britt told Small.

Dr. Britt himself is a well-known trailblazer in his field. He is a past Director of the American Board of Surgery, a past Chair of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons and past President of the American College of Surgeons. In addition, Dr. Britt was the first EVMS physician to be named to the National Academy of Medicine, and the first Black surgeon to hold an endowed chair in surgery at a major American medical school

“We have a lot of [African Americans] going into nursing and allied health professions, and I’m very encouraged by that,” Dr. Britt shared with Small. “But I would be even more encouraged if we had more people pursuing my discipline, which is surgery and medicine.”

Find out more about Dr. Britt’s life and career and the initiatives at EVMS aimed at supporting the next generation of minority providers in EVMS magazine.