(Updated 9/9/2014) A group of doctors has embarked on a road trip to reach out to the next generation of aspiring medical students in underserved communities.
As a co-founder of the Tour for Diversity in Medicine, Dr. Alden Landry and his colleagues have put their outreach and mentoring efforts into overdrive.
“If we’re going to address health disparities, we have to think outside the box,” Landry said.
A mentoring campaign on wheels, the tour’s bus has reached more than 2,000 students since it began rolling in 2012.
“Many students don’t know where to get guidance,” said Landry. “Our solution is to go to them.”
He is convinced that the Tour can get more minorities into the health professions, resulting in greater access to care for underserved communities.
“Down the road,” he said. “this can significantly help to eliminate health disparities.”
The tour is the brainchild of Landry and Kameron Leigh Matthews, who as members of the Student National Medical Association board worked to increase the number of culturally diverse physicians.
When they realized that the association wasn’t reaching many historically Black colleges and universities or community colleges, which enroll large numbers of racial and ethnic minorities, they considered going directly to the students. One of them blurted out, “We should just get on a bus!”
It was a radical notion. While a few medical career fairs tried to break down the barriers confronting underserved students, none of them got on a bus to do it.
After the duo finished their residencies in 2011, Landry called Matthews. “Kam, it’s now or never,” he said.
The Aetna Foundation and the U.S. Army pledged financial backing. Colleagues and medical students with diverse backgrounds, who knew firsthand the value of mentors, signed on.
“We always have people coming up saying, ‘How can I get on the bus?’” Landry says.
Landry’s first mentor was his own grandmother, a registered nurse who pushed him to become a physician. Later, through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Minority Medical Education Program, he met a Black ER doctor who mentored him through medical school and residency. His said his own efforts now are a way to repay their dedication.
Whether educating youth about health care through his Hip Hop Health nonprofit or wheeling down the road with his tour, Landry is invested in his mentees. To hear them tell it, the investment is worth it.
“To see people that look like you and have achieved your dreams is priceless,” one tour attendee said.
“After today,” another added, “I believe I can do anything.”
