Tackling Racism Internally to Better Serve Our Communities – A Closer Look at Mass General’s 10-Point Plan, featuring Joseph Betancourt, MD, MPH

Healthcare worker kneeling with a sign that says "White coats for Black Lives Matter"

By Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director, Joseph Betancourt, M.D., M.P.H. and Gene Beresin, Executive Director

When it comes to structural racism in health care, commitment to change stems from the top in creating physically and emotionally healthier communities. Today, on ‘Shrinking It Down,’ special guest Joseph Betancourt, MD, MPH, Vice President and Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), joins Gene and Khadijah to help us understand how seriously MGH takes this charge.

Dr. Betancourt has focused his life’s work on issues of equity and social justice, and has a long history of researching these issues and creating educational tools to improve cross-cultural interactions and increase diversity and equity in healthcare systems. In this episode, he talks through some of the things MGH is doing to improve hospital culture. Included in this is training to help hospital leaders, clinicians, and staff make progress in tackling implicit bias, and the need to measure and demonstrate this progress, so that training doesn’t become just another ‘check-the-box’ tool.

Thank you for joining in this conversation. Do you have a comment or question about MGH’s efforts to address and eliminate racism, and achieve equity and social justice? Write to us!

Media List

Follow along with the conversation.

Joseph Betancourt, MD, MPH (Massachusetts General Hospital)
Mongan Institute for Health Policy Center (Massachusetts General Hospital)
Quality Interactions
Home for the Holidays During COVID-19: Facing Empty Chairs at the Table (MGH Clay Center)
Puppies are Harder to Raise than Babies (Fatherly)
In The News (MGH Clay Center)
How Mass General Brigham Plans to Dismantle Racism In And Outside Hospital Walls (WBUR)
Mass General Brigham President and CEO’s Update to Employees On Racial Injustice (Mass General Brigham)
Mass General Structural Equity 10-Point Plan (Massachusetts General Hospital)
Moving Toward Anti-Racism for Our Future Generations, featuring O’Neil Britton, MD (MGH Clay Center)
Not me! Doctors, Decisions, and Disparities in Health Care (Cardiovascular Reviews & Reports)
Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care (National Academies Press)
New Art Exhibit Shines Light on Mental Illness in Unique Way (McLean Hospital)
It’s not up to black people to cure white racism (The Boston Globe)
Peak 2020: Early Christmas cheer hilariously crushed by ‘saddest’ Rockefeller Center tree (USA Today)
Biden on nominating diverse Cabinet: ‘I’m going to keep my commitment’ (Channel 3000)
Mending a House Divided: Bringing Peace and Good Will to the Holidays (MGH Clay Center)

Tune in wherever you get your podcasts – just search for ‘Shrinking It Down.’

Episode produced by Sara Rattigan

Music by Gene Beresin

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Khadijah Booth Watkins, Associate Director

Khadijah Booth Watkins, MD, MPH, is associate director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and the Associate Director of the Child and...

To learn more about Khadijah, or to contact her directly, please see Our Team.

Joseph Betancourt, M.D., M.P.H.

Joseph Betancourt, MD, MPH, is the Vice President and Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer of Massachusetts General Hospital, the founder, senior advisor and faculty of the Disparities Solutions Center (DSC) at Mass General, Faculty at the Mongan Insti...

To read full bio click here.

Gene Beresin, Executive Director

Gene Beresin, MD, MA is executive director of The MGH Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds, and a staff child and adolescent psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also...

To learn more about Gene, or to contact him directly, please see Our Team.