My Future Doctor

We plan to create an app that is powered by a university to provide classes/ materials to earn a free degree to become a health care provider to underrepresented communities.

African Americans are at risk for poor health due to prejudice, including racial segregation in their neighborhoods and a lack of attention from medical experts to their needs. Majority-black communities have less access to medical professionals and the care they are provided with changes based on the provider's bias. Black people's lives are being cut short by the lower quality medical care they receive in comparison to their white counterparts. The National Academy of Medicine (NAM)— a not-for-profit organization- found that “racial and ethnic minorities receive lower-quality health care than white people—even when insurance status, income, age, and severity of conditions are comparable.” According to NAM, minority individuals are less likely than white individuals to obtain the finest care for stroke, cancer, or cardiac care. Some studies have shown that racial differences in health can be explained by taking a closer look at those who decide not to give racial minorities the most efficient, health- and life-saving treatments. The claim is that racial bias among care providers may be the reason why people of color are sicker and die earlier than white people. Due to medical providers' prejudices, they provide patients of color with subpar medical care, which raises morbidity and mortality rates. If healthcare providers have racial biases, they may be consciously or unconsciously held.

We are fully aware that discrimination in the healthcare system won't be just resolved by only hiring more people of color, we believe that there should be a higher power to overlook how hospitals are run. This is why we want to start a nonprofit organization that collaborates with the government to investigate hospitals where there have been complaints of racial discrimination against patients. This nonprofit will organize and help find workshops for health care providers monthly to understand implicit and explicit bias and how they will overcome those in order to provide all patients equal care. If wanted, patients can receive classes and instructional lessons so they are aware of their rights and how to make a complaint if they feel they were not given the correct care because of their race or financial situation.

The technological aspects come in when we create the first app which will be partnered with a university or college in providing proper education for users that want to work in the medical industry. This means free online classes, lessons, textbooks, and materials to earn the degree they would at any university. Only by using our application, they can do it anytime, anywhere, for free. And for users that lack internet or device support, those will be provided if they qualify to use the application and be a part of the program.

And as for the healthcare providers we hope to create an app/digital program that has several exams and tests that they could take to see what they hold consciously and unconsciously about their patients. And by figuring out this information they could attend workshops and programs recommended by us in their area that could help them improve their treatment and the help they provide to their patients.

Given that African Americans make up only 5.0% of the medical workforce as a whole, my proposal is to increase their representation there. In order to help minorities advance in life, institutions and programs must be established that accommodate them. My approach involves education for students who might not have the opportunity to enroll in universities because of huge debt barriers. It is a regular practice that the majority of colleges only accept white students or students from extremely privileged backgrounds. So I plan to create low-cost programs and institutions that provide medical education for underrepresented students. According to a study done in 2013, African American students have the highest percentage of student debt by the end of their medical education. This proposal is based on what I have seen done in DC to help minorities get ahead of their education. For example, Carlos Rosario and UDC have implemented the suggestion I'm making which is offering affordable education to underrepresented communities and individuals, but neither the DC government nor the programs themselves actively advocate or promote the use of these initiatives. And unlike the examples I stated, my application will only be provided for minorities who would otherwise have difficulty accessing education that requires a lot of money.

Both I and my team come from a low-income underrepresented community, and every day we see and hear our neighbors, family members, and friends complain about their situation and treatment at the hospital and how they did not receive the right amount of care. We also see that education is very expensive so young students opt out of either going to college or earning a degree in education that requires a lot of time and money (medicine, law, engineering, etc.) So I and my teammate decided to research more on our city and how its citizens have been underrepresented and not given the right amount of aid to succeed in their life. But we also realized that many of our community members would love to further their education if they had the opportunity to choose the time of learning as well as the amount of money they have to spend. By working with various professors and universities we hope to achieve what has been considered unachievable for many. Providing education to underrepresented communities for low- to no coat.

Our team has spoken to several individuals who may be of interest to our solution. This includes high school students who want to further their education but don't have the money, as well as adults who work yet yarn to gain more in the education system yet don't have the time to do so. Both of these groups we believe reverse the support and opportunity they have been dined to for decades. We have also volunteered with institutions like Carlos Rosario which provide education, but not enough to earn a degree or enter the medical field. And by talking to family members and community members that have attended Carlos Rosario, they want full control of the time tey get the education, many of whom are supporting families of their own. So our goal became providing flexibility in their way of receiving the best education they can.

Our solution provides a new or significantly improved approach to the problem because no education in the US is free, especially when it comes to medicine and the healthcare industry/work field. It is true that many universities and online schools provide great education, but their coats cut off many individuals who may be eager to enter the industry and help change their community. So by making the app completely free and accessible to many individuals across the country we hope to change the demography of physicians in the healthcare system to have more diversity.  And although it will be hard

Our important goal for the upcoming year is getting universities and colleges to offer us their martial to use on our app. As well as completing creating the apps both for the users to earn their degrees, as well as the physicians to unwind their mindsets on their consciously or unconsciously held biases. By completing the first app we hope to see many users make the most out of the free education that is offered to work towards their degree to become physicians themselves. And since it is done online users are able to take courses and view lessons any time of the day making the experience of learning flexible and achievable, we hope to see changes in their lives. And for the other app created for the health care providers, we know and understand that it can be tough to unteach a certain concept and belief, but we hope by taking monthly exams and joining programs and worshiping the health care providers create change in the lives of anyone and everyone and not just one demographic. 

The technology that will power our solution is creating the app that will be a way that users can earn credit and their degree. The app will work with several universities to provide the same kind of material and lessons that would be taught in the universities on the app for free. 

Our solution doesn't stop there as there is another application that we plan to develop to teach and understand healthcare providers' biases and how they view their patients. Creating a program that focuses on the current biases they hold but also unprogramming their mindsets so they are natural and provide the best care possible to every individual. We plan to do this by introducing concepts like counter-stereotypic imaging — Imagining the individual as the opposite of the stereotype, and Individuation which is seeing the person as an individual rather than a stereotype. Physicians would take monthly tests on this and will be assigned to workshops and programs in their city that can help them unwind their mindsets and become just providers.

Currently, our solution isn't serving anyone yet as it is still in the concept stage but we hope that in the next or upcoming year, it could serve from 50-100 people. This number is just an estimation and is based on questionaries and interviews that were taken from our community, and the people that were interested in using our program.

I, Mekdelawit, am currently taking a computer science class at my local community college to understand more about the technological aspect of our solution. The goal for us is to create an app that can potentially offer the course that the users can do in order to obtain an education. So first I must understand how to create the app, which I think will still take me some time. Next is the financial situation. The app will have materials that are thought in universities for free, this means buying that material and lessons from the school. And another important fact to consider is that not everyone has the technological ability to use the app, there are many unprivileged individuals that don't have an internet connection or a device that could help them operate the application. 

We are currently not partnered with any organization, although we have spoken with as we mentioned organizations like Carlos Rosario and universities like UDC and Mongomery college to become the college to provide free education. Although nothing is confirmed yet we hope to get an understanding with either of the organizations.

The products or services that will be provided for the users are the free education they will receive. And for the healthcare providers the workshops and programs they could join in order to provide well-deserved care to every patient. These services will be provided through applications that will be free to use for anyone that is eligible. Many users will want our services because they will only gain from using them, getting free online education to work towards a degree that can be used is an opportunity many only can hope for. As well as for the doctors and health care providers, unless they are consciously deciding to provide more care to certain patients, we don't belive that any provider wants to help less, so by taking our exams and joining workshops they can moly exemplify the experiences they have with their patients and fellow coworkers.

We hope to find financial sustainability with the help of the government as well as donations. As I have mentioned before I am a Civics Unplugged alumni and they themselves know many organizations that can support us financially or grand us money to not only jumpstart our nonprofit but as well continue to support us. And since it is a non-profit we hope to work with interns and volunteers to run the organization.