The Fight to Fix a Racist Medical Gadget

Science Vs

Spotify Studios

Education, Science, Health & Fitness

4.4 • 12.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

The EEG is an incredibly important medical tool — and it’s been failing Black patients for decades. So today we’ll hear from two young, Black scientists who teamed up with hairdressers to do something about it. We speak to neurologist Dr. Jessie Baity, engineer Arnelle Etienne, biomedical scientist Lietsel Jones, and hairstylist Nina Woodley. Link to our transcript: https://bit.ly/sciencevsEEG This episode was produced by Taylor White, Meryl Horn and Wendy Zukerman, with help from Rose Rimler, Michelle Dang, Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, Courtney Gilbert, and Disha Bhagat. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Wendy Zukerman is the Executive Producer. Fact checking by Eva Dasher and Disha Bhagat. Mix and sound design by Catherine Anderson. Music written by Bumi Hidaka, Emma Munger, Bobby Lord, Peter Leonard and SoWylie. Thanks to the scientists we spoke to for this episode, including Dr. Christina Patterson, Dr. Pulkit Grover, Dr. Katherine Stavropoulos, Dr. Shannon Burns, Dr. Achuta Kadambi, Dr. Lauren Whitehurst, Dr. Zeniab Kone, Dr. Symon Kariuki, Nwabisa Mlandu, Carla Bailey, De-Shaine Murray, Dr. Jasmine Kwasa, Dr. Marieke Dekker, Prof. William Matuja, and all the researchers at Black in Neuro. Also thanks to everyone who talked to us about their EEG experiences. Special thanks to Ashwati Krishnan, Tarana Laroia, Evangeline Mensah-Agyekum, Bethel Habte, Brendan Klinkenberg and Rosie Guerin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Vestes from Gimlet.
0:04.0	Today on the show, how a team of young black scientists joined forces with hairdressers
0:11.6	to transform a very important medical device.
0:16.0	Recently, there's been a lot of talk about how some medical tools don't work as well if
0:25.4	you're not white.
0:28.0	During the pandemic, it made big news that pulse-oximitants weren't as accurate at measuring
0:32.3	the oxygen levels of people with darker skin.
0:35.6	These devices are not as reliable for every patient.
0:39.4	Black patients were significantly more likely to have an inaccurate reading.
0:44.0	There are issues with other stuff too.
0:45.6	AI tools that screen for skin cancer, a device that measures lung capacity.
0:50.4	But our story today is about the EEG, a tool that doctors use to measure electrical
0:56.1	activity in your brain.
0:58.3	The EEG hasn't gotten as much attention as pulse-oximitants.
1:01.5	But the thing is, after decades of people ignoring the problem with them, things are finally
1:08.9	starting to change.
1:11.0	So meet Dr. Jessie Bady, she's a neurologist in Louisiana and is a very busy person.
1:19.5	So we call her on a morning commute.
1:22.1	We often don't have people driving in the interviews.
1:33.0	So as she was driving along, Jessie told us about the EEG, or electroencephalogram.
1:40.2	She says that it's basically like a neurologist's swiss army knife.
1:43.8	EEGs are extremely important.
	...

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