Ep. 85: Tackling Social Disparities Head on with Dr. Jay Perman- Pediatric Gastroenterologist and Chancellor of the University System of Maryland

In January 2020, Jay Perman became the 5th Chancellor of the University System of Maryland after serving as President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMBC) for nearly a decade. Dr. Perman is also a pediatric gastroenterologist and in 2001 was listed as one of the “Best Doctors in America”. As Chancellor, Dr. Perman has committed to advancing higher education affordability for all students in Maryland. He also plans to expand educational innovation, particularly in research, economic development, and community engagement. Above all, Dr. Permans main mission is to ensure that every person in Maryland who wants a college education is able to access it. In this episode, Dr. Perman says, “That's what our collective obligation is: to remove the obstacles, make opportunity and get these kids to college.”

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Show Notes

[4:36] I have an obligation. Somebody gave me access to higher education and now I have this wonderful platform to make sure that people get access.
[6:07] You know, I'm not smart enough to know all of the factors that cause this virus to hit the poor and to hit minorities harder than the rest of us. But some of it has got to be attributable to what we call the social determinants of health.
[6:33] For poor people, people that don't live in good conditions in terms of their housing, they have no income, they're not health literate. Those are the people who you could make a correct diagnosis and prescribe the right therapy for, but if you don't deal with everything else that they're dealing with, you haven't done anything because most of the time it's not going to work. One of the things that keeps poor people poor is the fact that they don't have the same opportunity for education.
[7:11] I've learned that talent is pretty universal, and what's not universal is opportunity.
[7:17] That's what our collective obligation is to remove the obstacles, make opportunity and get these kids to college.
[7:46] We've got to do what we can do safely to get these campuses open to the degree that they are particularly available to the very people who are so affected by the virus. Those opportunities on campus are disproportionately important, in my view, to the underprivileged among us.
[8:22] If we are going to dismantle structural racism, then the kids that are coming up now need to have a chance to succeed.
[9:11] I think that we have a responsibility to figure out what we can do as higher education folks to serve K-12 education better, so that by the time kids that want a college education come to us, they don't have to be remediated. Remediation costs money, but more than money, it causes discouragement to a young person who comes to college, looking forward to college and then can't do the work.
[10:03] The number of African-American males that matriculated to medical schools in the United States in 2018 is about the same number as the number of African-American male medical students that matriculated in 1978. Meanwhile, the African-American population of this country has doubled, but it's remained flat for 40 years in medical schools.
[10:52] The health care literature shows that people will have better outcomes if they are cared for by somebody that comes from their culture, their life experience, looks like them.
[13:38] You gotta start somewhere. And those kids are mentored after school. And on Saturdays, we bring them into operating rooms, obviously when patients are not there, so they can see the environment. They need to have hope, and they need to have preparation, and they need to be hung onto so that we can make a difference.
[14:34] One way that we have to address and knock down this issue of disparities, of racism, of underprivilege, is to do everything we can to give our kids hope.
[17:17] I said,"So Xavier, what do you want to be when you grow up?" And, you know, he gave me the usual response that you get from eight or nine year old kids, particularly kids in West Baltimore. He starts telling me about the NBA and the NFL. Now, this kid was a sharp kid because he probably noticed from the look on my face that I was not impressed, that I was not convinced. And he just turned on a dime and he looked me straight in the face and he said, "Or maybe I'll have your job." Now, you know, I suppressed a smile. Everybody does when I tell the story or laugh out loud, not laughing at Xavier, but the cuteness of it. But, you know, I have never forgotten that comment, I think about it often. "Or maybe I'll have your job." You know, between that eight year old kid in West Baltimore and my job there's about a thousand obstacles. And that's what I think our responsibilities are in dealing with this matter of lack of privilege, structural racism.
[19:21] I look at COVID as sort of a reinforcement of why we need to do this, because as you pointed out at the outset, look at what's happened. Look at who's been disproportionately affected. COVID is sort of a driver. I know it's an overused word. It's sort of an accelerant to deal with the issues we've been talking about.
[23:40] There are going to be other kinds of jobs, and we have to do our part as a university system to help those people prepare for a new economy, a new world where different kinds of jobs are present.
[24:12] None of what we're planning is going to work unless there is an esprit de corps, unless we all feel that we're responsible for each other.
[24:33] And I hope we can, with everybody's help, rise together to a point where we have a social contract. We all are responsible for each other.
[26:06] But I want to teach the students of the various professions to appreciate each other because health care now needs to be team based care, and particularly for people that have the social determinants of health.
[27:09] What good does it do to make elegant diagnoses and write scripts if somebody doesn't understand what you're talking about? Which is not their fault.
[28:44] I learned from my father the importance of compassion and empathy. But I also learned from my mother, no money, no mission.
Thank you for joining us on Health Gig. We loved having you with us. We hope you'll tune in again next week. In the meantime, be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast, and follow us on healthgigpod.com.

“I've learned that talent is pretty universal, and what's not universal is opportunity.” - Dr. Jay Perman
“I think that we have a responsibility to figure out what we can do as higher education folks to serve K-12 education better, so that by the time kids that want a college education come to us, they don't have to be remediated. Remediation costs money, but more than money, it causes discouragement to a young person who comes to college, looking forward to college and then can't do the work.” - Dr. Jay Perman
“None of what we're planning is going to work unless there is an esprit de corps, unless we all feel that we're responsible for each other.” - Dr. Jay Perman

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