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Students, faculty, march in honor of MLK Editor’s note: In honor of Martin Luther King Day, MUSC students wrote essays in response to the assignment: “Dr. Martin Luther King once said, ‘Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.’ In 1,000 words or less, describe what you think Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. meant when he said this, and how you, as an individual, can contribute to change in this area.” The following essay, written by COM student Cerrone Cohen, placed first in the competition. by Cerrone Cohen College of Medicine “Shocking and inhumane.” Dr. King used these words to describe injustice in health care at the convention for the Medical Committee for Human Rights.  This organization was formed in the 1960s to care for civil rights workers and volunteers in the South. They were freedom fighters, volunteers, activists, and above all Americans, otherwise denied the most basic forms of health care simply because of the color of their skin.  His words described inequality in the arena of medicine with the greatest disdain, portraying it second to none among the other injustices scarring America. During the time that these words were spoken Dr. King saw injustice in its highest sense, from segregated waiting rooms to outright denial of care for the sick and dying.    Health care in America has certainly come a long way. However, although hospitals and doctors’ offices no longer advertise injustice on the front door, inequality remains ever present in persistent health care disparities. Gone are much of the obvious civil partitions seen in the Jim Crowe days of separate waiting rooms and segregated hospital wards. Yet, inequality has lingered in such differences as major disease intervention, transplant ratios, and quality of care. According to the recent National Healthcare Disparities Report, poorer patients are less likely to receive recommended treatments for diabetes, and Hispanics are less likely to receive optimal care than other groups when hospitalized for acute heart attacks. Racial minorities are also more likely to die from AIDS and are more often diagnosed with cancer in its later stages. I doubt that Dr. King intended to reserve the seriousness of his comments to describe the former years only, but rather that he would also apply them to these less obvious injustices that remain almost 40 years after his death.   These differences in quality medical care often go unnoticed, and so remain tough to change. If we as individuals intend to make a difference, first we must educate ourselves and those around us, examining each other’s misconceptions amidst a growing America. As humans, what we find unfamiliar, we often fail to understand and that which is different, we often so easily dismiss. It is this failure to become students of our diverse and changing American culture that allows for differences in the quality of care among different races, religions, ethnicities, and income levels to exist.    About 50 MUSC officials, students, faculty, staff and friends marched in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Jan. 11. Some disparities may be the result of conscious choices of doctors and other medical providers, while still others may be the result of a failure to educate patients themselves about their own health and the truth about their various treatment options. In any case, we must encourage dialogue and awareness on a public scale.   Fighting inequality in health care may be no different than the fight for equality in education, suffrage, or any other injustice that activists have battled since the beginning. However, perhaps activists like Dr. King didn’t make their greatest impact while in front of a podium or standing in courtrooms, although both were important stages. Rather, in their daily lives they became unforeseen heroes, confronting injustice one by one, making disciples as they went along day by day. Sometimes great change is not sparked by a rally or march, but by a single woman refusing to give up her seat on a bus. Similarly, it is in our day-to-day lives that we as individuals must battle disparities in health care.  It is a problem great in number, but that is made of single individuals.   As physicians and health care providers we are all leaders in medicine and must make daily choices to first deal with our own prejudices and also educate our colleagues and patients. What we tolerate, we encourage. We must take the time to understand and appreciate those who do not look like us or speak the same language we speak. As individuals lasting change must begin in our own offices, in our own departments, and in our own hospitals. The most shocking injustice? Certainly. Because, inequality in health care is nothing short of inequality in the right to life. Pharmacy’s Brown receives Martin Luther King award by Cindy Abole Public Relations The legacy left by civil rights leader and Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. is one that has affected generations of people living in America.   Since 2004, areawide college students have collaborated to honor distinguished faculty and staff who have demonstrate that same spirit of mutual respect, cultural understanding and citizenship characterized by the late civil rights leader. The program is sponsored by the Black History Intercollegiate Consortium, a non-profit collaborative organization committed to improving cultural and ethnic diversity throughout Tri-county campus communities.      Steve Brown Steve Brown, assistant professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and assistant dean for student affairs in the College of Pharmacy, was named the 2007 recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Recognition Award. Known for his compassion and commitment to others, Brown received the award from MUSC pharmacy students Tiffany Bell and Teresa Burks on Jan. 16 in a ceremony held at Charleston Southern University.   This communitywide Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration entitled, “Beyond the Dream: Building Communities through Servant-Leadership,” was coordinated solely by students as a community recognition program honoring King’s legacy. Other recipients of this year’s MLK award are Hester Young, Charleston Southern University; Larry Ferguson, DMD, The Citadel; and Vertelle Middleton, Trident Technical College.      “I’m highly pleased and humbled,” said Brown. “I’m flattered that these pharmacy students have nominated me to receive this award. I feel very fortunate in my 29 years at MUSC to have gotten to know many fine and very smart students. Within the college, we’re always striving to improve student life for everyone. I’ve always considered my role of service as one of the most important aspects of my job.”   Brown, a Tennessee native who has been with MUSC’s pharmacy program for 29 years, interacts with pharmacy students continuously through his job. He manages academic advising in the college for more than 300 students and monitors student progression in each of the four pharmacy classes on MUSC’s campus.   As a campus referral source, he assists students in utilizing all of MUSC’s student services and campuswide resources from MUSC’s Center for Excellence, the Writing Center, counseling, financial aid, etc. Pharmacy students are assigned to a specific faculty member as academic advisor. All advisors are trained to assist and help connect students to the appropriate campus resource for assistance and support.   “While the College of Pharmacy has many members of its faculty that truly care about the students, the relationship that Steve has with the student body is unmatched. His door is continuously open for advice concerning anything from academics, to personal situations, to just sharing a laugh,” said Tiffany Bell, COP student.   “Pharmacy school is not only about academics,” Brown said. “Naturally, students learn to interact with one another and others campuswide. Pharmacy students don’t need a lot of encouragement to conduct outreach projects and be part of community service. I see my role as helping them to organize their time in wanting to assist others.”   Additionally, Brown has been an active participant with the campus’oversight committee supporting MUSC programs with Historically Black Colleges and the Universities Summer Institute, a program whose goal is to recruit and shepherd in a more diverse student body at MUSC. Through the years, he  has been an active participant in various public middle and high school career day visits organized to steer Lowcountry students towards college and possible careers in the medical professions.   Brown is a member of  MUSC’s Earl B. Higgins Diversity Awards Committee, which annually recognizes campuswide efforts to improve diversity among students, staff and faculty.   Most recently, Brown served on a newly formed committee whose goal is to improve services for students with disabilities.   “This is truly a student-driven program,” said Angie Anderson, MUSC Office of Student Diversity and consortium representative. Student-participants complete an assignment that explores what Dr. King means to them. Keeping this program with the students makes it more meaningful to them and Dr. King’s legacy.”   Previous MUSC-MLK Recognition Award winners include Thad Bell, M.D., Office of Diversity (2004); Sherron Jackson, M.D., MUSC Children’s Hospital (2005); and Myra Haney, College of Medicine (2006).     Friday, Jan. 19, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.