Uché Blackstock facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Uché Blackstock
Born	1977/1978 (age 47–48)
Education	Harvard University (BS, MD)
Relatives	Oni Blackstock (sister)
Scientific career
Institutions	New York University School of Medicine SUNY Downstate Medical Center Mount Sinai Morningside

Uché Blackstock is an American emergency doctor. She used to be a professor at the New York University School of Medicine. She is also the person who started and leads Advancing Health Equity. This organization works to help healthcare places deal with unfairness and racism in medicine. Their main goal is to make sure everyone has a fair chance at good health.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Blackstock shared her experiences as a doctor on the front lines. She also talked about how the pandemic showed big differences in health for different groups of people. She is well-known for explaining these health differences and for her many media appearances during the pandemic. In June 2020, she became a medical expert for Yahoo! News.

Early Life and Education

Dr. Blackstock grew up in Brooklyn, New York, specifically in Crown Heights. She has a twin sister named Oni Blackstock. Their mother, Dale Gloria Blackstock, was also a doctor who studied at Harvard University. She was the first in her family to go to college. Their mother focused on kidney health and led an organization for Black women doctors in Brooklyn. Dr. Blackstock's father, Earl, was an accountant.

Uché and Oni spent a lot of time with their mother at the hospital. They also watched her work in community health programs in Brooklyn. Both sisters graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1995. They then followed their mother's path, attending both college and medical school at Harvard. Sadly, Dr. Blackstock's mother passed away in July 1997, during Uché's second year of college.

While at Harvard, Dr. Blackstock also enjoyed journalism. She wrote for the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson. In 2005, Dr. Blackstock and her sister graduated from Harvard Medical School. They were the first Black mother-daughter pair to all graduate from that school. After medical school, Dr. Blackstock completed her training at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. There, she became a Chief Resident and focused on emergency medicine. Later, in 2010, she finished a special training program at Mount Sinai Morningside for using ultrasound in emergencies.

Dr. Blackstock's Career

Working as a Doctor

In July 2010, Dr. Blackstock became an assistant professor at the New York University School of Medicine. At the same time, she worked as an emergency doctor. Back then, less than two percent of doctors in America were Black women. In 2012, she became the Ultrasound Content Director at the university. In this role, she created a special program to teach medical students how to use ultrasound.

In October 2017, Dr. Blackstock took on another important role. She became the Faculty Director for Recruitment, Retention and Inclusion in the Office of Diversity Affairs at New York University School of Medicine. Here, she worked to create programs that would help Black, Latino, and Indigenous faculty members feel welcome and supported. Dr. Blackstock left NYU School of Medicine in 2019. She later explained that she left because of challenges for Black trainees and faculty. She has spoken out about how medical centers need to do a better job of fixing unfairness in healthcare.

Working for Health Equity

Dr. Blackstock has worked to highlight unfairness in healthcare since the beginning of her career. Her mother's experiences and her own observations as a doctor inspired her to start her own organization. In March 2018, Dr. Blackstock founded Advancing Health Equity. This group works with healthcare organizations to fix health differences based on race.

She believes that having a diverse team of healthcare workers, where everyone feels valued, is key to providing excellent patient care. Through her organization, Dr. Blackstock leads training sessions for healthcare groups. These sessions cover topics like hidden biases and how unfair systems affect health. She also helps organizations reach their goals for health fairness. Some of her past clients include Salesforce and Northwestern Lurie Children's Hospital. In 2019, Forbes magazine recognized Dr. Blackstock. They included her on their list of "10 Diversity and Inclusion Trailblazers You Need to Get Familiar With."

During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Currently, Dr. Blackstock works part-time at several urgent care centers in Brooklyn. These centers usually treat minor health issues. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Dr. Blackstock noticed many patients coming in with symptoms of coronavirus. She used social media to talk about how hard it was to get tests for her patients. This was especially frustrating when famous people seemed to get tested easily and quickly.

She became worried about how the pandemic would affect Black patients. In an interview, Dr. Blackstock said she worried about the possibility of hospitals running out of equipment like ventilators. She knew this would affect many Black people. She has spoken and written about how the pandemic would show and make worse existing health differences. She also talked about what leaders needed to do to stop the virus from spreading among the most vulnerable people. Throughout the crisis, Dr. Blackstock appeared on many podcasts, radio shows, and news programs. She worked to share correct information about the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of her media appearances, Yahoo! News asked her to be a Medical Contributor in June 2020.

Selected Publications

• Why Black Doctors Like Me are Leaving Faculty Positions in Academic Medical Centers
• What the COVID-19 Pandemic Means for Black Americans
• Black Communities were Essentially Already Sick Before Coronavirus: Pandemic Highlights Preexisting Condition with Health Care and Race
• Community Health Workers are Essential in the Crisis. We Need More of Them
• Two words no parent of a sick child should have to hear: ‘At capacity
• Say her name: Dr. Susan Moore
• Alvin Bragg’s unjust prosecution: Tracy McCarter should be freed
• Mother, daughters, doctors. Affirmative action at Harvard makes a generational ripple in improving black health care

Selected Honors and Awards

• 2022 NAACP Brooklyn Chapter's Valiant Service Award
• 2021 American Medical Women's Association's Presidential Award
• 2021 Harvard Humanist of the Year

Personal Life

Dr. Blackstock has two children. She is a popular health communicator. She often shares her experiences as a Black woman doctor on Twitter. Her twin sister, Oni, is also a doctor. Oni is a primary care physician and researcher. She used to be the Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of HIV for New York City.

See also

In Spanish: Uché Blackstock para niños