Negligent by Design: Examining Structural Factors in Health Care and Medical Education
January 13, 2027 at 1:00:00 PM
This presentation examines how structural inequities within health care and graduate medical education contribute to disparate experiences and outcomes for Black physicians and the communities they serve. It will explore how subjective standards, inconsistent remediation practices, limited transparency, and inadequate due process can create preventable barriers to physician retention and advancement. The presentation will also consider how these institutional practices affect workforce diversity, patient access, and health equity, while highlighting opportunities for research, accountability, policy reform, and systems-level change.
Vanessa Grubbs, MD, MPH
Dr. Vanessa Grubbs is a double board-certified nephrologist and internist, published author, physician researcher, and kidney donor. She is the founder & president of Black Doc Village, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing the disproportionate dismissal of Black resident physicians through research and policy change. Her first book, HUNDREDS OF INTERLACED FINGERS: A Kidney Doctor’s Search for the Perfect Match (Amistad, 2017), tells her story of becoming a kidney donor, then nephrologist, and her experiences with ethical and controversial topics in nephrology. Black feminist scholar, author and activist, Angela Davis, describes Dr. Grubbs’ latest book, NEGLIGENT BY DESIGN: Anti-Blackness in American Medicine and How to Address It (North Atlantic Books, 2025), as “a major contribution to continuing efforts to acknowledge and rectify medical racism in its many forms.”