Black History Month: 5 times Black scientists and clinicians have changed the landscape of health care

Throughout history, Black Americans have made indelible contributions to health care, from developing new treatments to conducting innovative research to breaking long-standing discriminatory barriers. Black History Month is an opportunity to draw inspiration from their stories and honor their accomplishments.

Below we profile five Black changemakers in science, health and wellness. This information includes highlights from a variety of websites listed at the end of this article.

Charles Drew, MD (1904–1950)
Father of the Blood Bank

A renowned U.S. surgeon, professor and scientist, Charles Drew, MD, developed the standards and techniques used to preserve blood plasma, a liquid that helps transport blood cells and other vital substances throughout the body. Plasma is sometimes used as a blood substitute to help patients in emergency medical situations.

Dr. Drew’s research led him to serve as the head of the Blood for Britain project, where he oversaw the collection and shipment of blood and plasma, saving thousands of British military and civilian lives in World War II. Dr. Drew then became the appointed assistant director of an American Red Cross pilot program that established the national blood banking system in the United States. Among Dr. Drew’s innovations were mobile blood donation stations, later known as “bloodmobiles.” His work and achievements in this role earned him the nickname “Father of the Blood Bank.”

In 1941, Drew left his position at the Red Cross due to their policy of segregating blood donations from Black people. He went on to train a generation of young Black surgeons at Howard University and to campaign for the inclusion of Black physicians in medical organizations.

Patricia Bath, MD (1942–2019)
Ophthalmology pioneer

Patricia Bath, MD, was an ophthalmologist and inventor with a long history of trailblazing in the field of medicine. The first Black resident in ophthalmology at New York University’s School of Medicine, Dr. Bath went on to become the first Black female surgeon at the University of California Medical Center in Los Angeles.

In the 1980s, Dr. Bath revolutionized cataract surgery. Cataracts are a condition where the lens of the eye becomes clouded, often resulting in vision loss over time if not treated. After studying laser technology at Berlin University in Germany, Dr. Bath developed the Laserphaco Probe, an instrument that removes cataracts, cleans the eye and allows a new lens to be inserted.

In 1988, Dr. Bath became the first Black American female physician to receive a patent for a medical device— the first of five U.S. patents she would receive over her career. In addition to being a surgical innovator, Dr. Bath was a humanitarian who believed that vision was a basic human right. In pursuance of that belief, she cofounded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Washington, D.C.

Brig. Gen. Hazel Johnson Brown, RN, PhD (1927–2011)
Champion for nurses

Brig. Gen. Hazel Johnson Brown, RN, PhD, was a leader in the military and the field of nursing whose contributions endure today. After attending the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing, Johnson Brown enlisted in the army in 1955, only seven years after the Army Nurse Corps had been racially integrated.

Johnson Brown, an operating room (OR) nurse, was passionate about nurse education, training surgical nurses for the OR as well as those bound for combat medical tents in Vietnam. Johnson Brown rose through the ranks to become the first Black female brigadier general in the U.S. Army as well as the first Black chief of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.

Johnson Brown’s achievements in these leadership roles were many: In an effort to advance equality and diversify enrollment in the Army Nurse Corps, she created scholarships for Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) nursing students as well as clinical training camps. Johnson Brown published the first Army Nurse Corps Standards of Practice, and she established Army nursing conferences to promote nursing research and to publicize the work and successes of her fellow nurses.

Daniel Hale Williams, MD (1856–1931)
Hospital visionary, groundbreaking surgeon

Daniel Hale Williams, MD, had an illustrious career as both a hospital founder and a surgeon. In response to discriminatory practices that barred Black doctors from hospital staff positions and Black nurses from training programs, Dr. Williams established Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses in 1891. Provident was the first Black-owned hospital in the United States and the first hospital with racially integrated staff, trainees and patients.

Dr. Williams went on to shape medical history in other ways as well. In 1893, while caring for a patient who had been stabbed in the chest, he performed what is lauded as the first successful documented open-heart surgery. A year later he became chief surgeon of Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., where his efforts were instrumental in reducing the hospital’s mortality rate. In 1913, Dr. Williams become the first Black physician to be inducted into the American College of Surgeons.

Kizzmekia Corbett, PhD (1986– )
Leading vaccine developer

Immunologist Kizzmekia Corbett, PhD, conducted research that changed the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and saved millions of lives around the world. Corbett has been studying viruses for more than 15 years, work that has led her to garner several patents for vaccine concepts.

As a research fellow and the scientific lead for the Coronavirus Vaccines & Immunopathogenesis Team at the National Institutes of Health, Corbett played an integral role in developing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. For her groundbreaking contributions, Corbett was chosen as 2021 Federal Employee of the Year; Time magazine named her one of four “heroes of the year” in 2021.

Currently, she is an assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. At Harvard, she leads the Coronaviruses & Other Relevant Emerging Infectious Diseases (CoreID) Lab. In addition to being a leading vaccine developer, Corbett is an advocate for health equity and vaccine awareness.

Sources

• www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/african-americans-in-sciences/charles-richard-drew.html
• https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/bg/feature/biographical
• www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/dr-patricia-bath
• https://drpatriciabath.com/
• https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_26.html
• https://www.thenmusa.org/biographies/hazel-johnson-brown/
• https://columbiasurgery.org/news/daniel-hale-williams-and-first-successful-heart-surgery
• https://asm.org/Biographies/Kizzmekia-S-Corbett,-Ph-D