Former Surgeon General Satcher to UAB: Take Risks
Former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher gave a talk at UAB Wednesday about racial and economic disparities in health care and in the opportunities available to minority providers. He spoke to more than 100 medical students and other professionals at the invitation of the Birmingham branch of the Student National Medical Association.
With Black History Month as a backdrop, Satcher pleaded for bold leadership in medicine and explained how his own near-death experience prompted him to take risks over his long career. He said things have improved since blacks couldn’t be admitted to hospitals — let alone be the doctors doing the admitting — but he told up-and-coming doctors that they still need to sacrifice.
“You’ve got to find something that you stand for, that you believe in, and that you’re willing to take risks for,” he said. “I quote Martin Luther King: ‘until a person finds something for which he or she is willing to die, you’re not fit to live.’”
Dan Carsen, WBHM
Members of the Student National Medical Association’s Birmingham branch focus in on David Satcher, whom they invited to speak for Black History Month.
He said that’s true whether you’re treating underserved populations or advocating for better healthcare in the political arena, which affects any nation’s health. He said that’s why he founded the Satcher Health Leadership Institute in 2006.
Satcher has spent his career working for people who aren’t well-served by the health care system. His motivation goes back to 1940’s Anniston, where as a toddler he almost died of whooping cough and pneumonia. But a black doctor came to his parents’ farm.
“I wouldn’t wish on anybody a near-death experience like I had. But I do know whatever happens to you can be the basis for great things in the future. He saved my life, and as a result, I made a commitment to him, but [also] to myself and others.”
Satcher has also worked to destigmatize mental illness and addiction.
Group shot with a role model: members of the Student National Medical Association’s Birmingham branch pose with David Satcher at UAB.
Lawmakers move to place rules on app use by children
For many of us, smartphones are our connection to the world, whether it's messaging friends, watching videos or catching up on the news. That connection gets a little more fraught, though, when the person using the phone is a minor. An Alabama Senate committee this week passed a bill that would put in place new rules around apps and children.
Skier Lindsey Vonn’s Winter Olympic comeback dream is in jeopardy after a crash
Vonn was seen clutching her left knee after crashing in a race in Switzerland on Friday, the last before the Winter Olympics. Her comeback after retiring in 2019 was one of Team USA's biggest stories.
Feds arrest 4, including Don Lemon and Minnesota journalist over church protest
Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards, his attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement posted on social media.
‘ChatGPT saved my life.’ How patients, and doctors, are using AI to make a diagnosis
Hundreds of millions of people are turning to chatbots to help figure out what's wrong with them. Doctors say that's not always a bad thing. In fact, many are using it themselves.
Birmingham Museum of Art brings a century of French Modernist works to town
Claude Monet and Henri Matisse may already be household names for fans of Impressionism, French painting or water lilies, but the Birmingham Museum of Art is offering a fresh look into 100 years of French modern art beyond the famed Frenchmen. It’s all in their newest exhibit Monet to Matisse: French Moderns, 1850–1950, opening Friday.
Trump taps Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve
Trump plans to nominate Kevin Warsh to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve, when Jerome Powell's term expires in May. The president has been pushing the central bank to slash interest rates.
