Inside STAT: Lack of darker skin in textbooks, journals harms patients of color

(HYACINTH EMPINADO/STAT)

As the world, and particularly the U.S., grapples with racism and its systemic effects, the field of dermatology is also going through its own reckoning. The Covid-19 pandemic is shining a light on how the lack of images in textbooks and journals on various skin conditions among people of color is widening an already big gap between white and non-white patients. Dermatologist Jenna Lester became acutely aware of this when she went searching for images of a new symptom of Covid-19 — skin rashes — on Black skin so she could help her Black patients with the infection. But she couldn't find a single picture. “I felt like I was seeing a disparity being built right before my eyes,” Lester tells STAT contributor Usha Lee McFarling. Read more here.