On June 25th, 2024, Pathology Professor Andrea Deyrup, MD, PhD, spoke on a national panel hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) titled “The Devastating Impacts of the Misuse of Race in Medicine.” The discussion was part of the 17-part AAAS Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medical (STEMM) Equity Achievement (SEA) Change Biomedicine Learning Series, “Transforming Medical Education to Dismantle Harmful Practices and Advance Equity.”
Panelists discussed how race and intersecting social variables of sex, gender, and disability are unquestioningly accepted as biological reality. They also covered the harmful societal impacts of medical knowledge and practices that are permeated with bias and misinformation and offered suggestions for how to change medical school curricula. Other speakers included Dr. Alan Goodman, Dr. Joseph L. Graves, Jr., Dr. Kayla Retallick, and Dr. Carina Seah.
The learning series is comprised of presentations and activities to build the capacity of SEA Change members and the broader STEMM Community to critically understand and analyze how the historical production of racist and other oppressive biomedical knowledge and practices continues to shape contemporary biomedicine. The entire AAAS learning series and the speakers' recorded sessions can be explored on the SEA Change Institute Course Catalog site.
AAAS initiated STEMM SEA Change in order to foster sustainable change in diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEMM fields at higher education institutions in the United States. It’s used as a certification process that helps develop cultural norms that support inclusive environments in education.
Deyrup is a nationally renowned speaker on the topic of race in medicine. In March 2024, she participated in a panel discussion following a presentation on “Using Race, Ethnicity, and Ancestry as Population Descriptors in Genetics and Genomics Research.” It was hosted by Duke’s Precision Genomics Collaboratory and Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. Leaders were Duke professor Charmaine Royal, PhD, and New York University professor Aravinda Chakravarti, PhD, co-chairs of the 2023 National Academics of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Report. The report emphasized the importance of ensuring that genetics research benefits all groups in society and mitigates harm.
A large focus of Deyrup’s work has been to examine the questionable science that supports race-based associations in medical texts and board exams. After finding that the data were often inaccurate and misinterpreted, she has been building connections through presentations and a popular video series to end racialized medicine. Read more and watch a video about her work here.