As racial inequity was thrown into the spotlight in 2020, a group of medical professionals at UCSF began working on a way to improve the lives of Black Americans from infancy.
“We started to think about BLOOM right during the George Floyd incidents and really wanting to dive deep into racial health equity for our community in order to support our families, our children that we were seeing all the time in our federally qualified health center,” Dr. Dayna Long told KCBS Radio’s Alice Wertz on the latest “As Prescribed” episode.
A pediatrician at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, Long co-created and now co-directs the Black Baby Equity Clinic (BLOOM). After opening this July, the clinic began connecting Black patients from birth to 3 years old and their parents with a team of health care providers who share their background.
“It has been an absolute pleasure to serve our community, and I have to say that our family shows up for this clinic. We have about a 90% to 100% show rate,” said Long, referring to the percentage of patients who show up to their appointments. “Families are reporting to us that BLOOM is exactly what they were looking for. They wanted a clinical team that looked like them.”
Matching young patients and their caregivers with health professionals who understand their unique needs and experiences can improve health outcomes. However, that kind of care isn’t the always available for Black children. Only 5% of practicing pediatricians in the nation are Black, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Infant mortality is also more than two times higher for Black babies, who are four times more likely to die from complications related to low birth weight and nearly three times more likely to die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), according to UCSF.
“I’m the mother of three black sons, and even this week I’m going to the principal’s office at my son’s school because there’s rampant racial slurs,” said Dr. Long, who added that “discrimination is real and it’s painful. What we know is that black people are often made to be invisible, that our pain is often ignored, that we are often underdiagnosed and undertreated and denied care.”
Listen to this week’s “As Prescribed” to learn more about how BLOOM is aiming to change that. You can also listen to last week’s “As Prescribed” about weight loss medications that have been making headlines in recent months here.