When Damon Tweedy was in his first year of medical school, he learned a number of startling statistics that led him to the conclusion that being black is somehow bad for your health.
He heard over and over how black patients were faring worse than other patients in almost every field of medicine, but nobody seemed to be talking about the reasons for this disparity.
As his career evolved, Tweedy also began to notice the ways in which his own race impacted both his relationships with patients and his own healthcare experience.
His upcoming memoir “A Black Man In A White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine” (Picador/2015) documents his experiences grappling with racial identity and the unique health problems of black Americans.
Host Frank Stasio talks to Damon Tweedy, professor of psychiatry at Duke University and staff physician at Durham VA Medical Center.