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GBN’s Daily Drop: Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner – Inventor of the Sanitary Belt (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop: Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner – Inventor of the Sanitary Belt (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 4, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Friday, March 4 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022, about inventor Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner who, along with the sanitary belt, patented her creations of a serving tray attachment for walkers, a wall-mountable back washer and an accessible toilet paper holder:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

 

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Friday, March 4th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. It’s in the category for Black Inventors we call “You Know We Did That, Right?”

Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner was determined to help women everywhere when she invented and patented an adjustable sanitary belt with an in-built, moisture-proof napkin pocket in 1956. When a company showed interest in licensing her design, they quickly reversed course after discovering that Kenner was Black.

Then once Kenner’s patent expired, her design became public domain and she never got paid for it. But still determined to make a difference, Mary and her sister Mildred, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, invented a serving tray attachment for walkers, a mountable back washer, and an accessible toilet tissue holder – earning four more patents for her life-enhancing creations.

To learn more about Kenner, check out Marc Lamont Hill’s video segment on BNC News about her as well as links to other sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript [posted] on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can give a positive rating or review, share [links to your favorite episodes] on social media, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

University of Pennsylvania Study Shows Telemedicine Eliminates Historical Racial Gap in Aftercare Follow-Ups

University of Pennsylvania Study Shows Telemedicine Eliminates Historical Racial Gap in Aftercare Follow-Ups

By goodblacknews on February 6, 2022

According to a study conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine seems to effectively eliminate the historical racial gap in show rates to follow-up appointments after hospitalizations.

The researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have analyzed data from 2019-2021 showing that attendance or “show” rates at follow-up appointments after hospitalization climbed among Black patients from 52 to 70 percent when telemedicine became one of the main modes for primary care visits.

To quote from jbhe.com:

This was comparable to White patients, whose visit completion rates at primary care follow-up appointments were 67 percent by the middle of 2020. The boost the researchers documented effectively eliminated the historical racial gap in show rates to follow-up appointments.

“We do have data that there are racial inequities in geographic access to primary care providers,” notes Eric Bressman, a fellow in the National Clinician Scholars Program and an internist at the University of Pennsylvania medical school. “That is one factor among many that may influence whether a patient is able to make it to a scheduled appointment. It is also one of the ways in which telemedicine might level the playing field in terms of accessing primary care services.”

The Journal of General Internal Medicine published the full study titled, “Association of Telemedicine with Primary Care Appointment Access After Hospital Discharge.” To access it, click  here.

Regardless of race, some overall benefits were seen after June 2020. The time between discharge and the first primary care appointment follow-up fell by a day-and-a-half when the appointment was held via telemedicine. Completion rates of the follow-up appointments were 22 percent higher via telemedicine, and the rate of follow-up within a week of hospitalization was 8 percent higher, too.

Bressman and his fellow researchers believe that such stark findings warrant further exploration and availability of telemedicine. While it came about amid a crisis, incorporating it into regular, day-to-day operations appears to have significant value.

“While there are evolving issues around quality, payment, and regulatory policy, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that telemedicine was and can continue to be a vital access point for many people,” Bressman said. “If it can promote access and even ameliorate disparities, then it is worth continuing to invest in.”

Read more: https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2022/january/racial-disparity-in-appointment-attendance-after-hospitalization-disappears-as-telemedicine-adopted

____________________________________________________________________

Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $8.9 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top medical schools in the United States for more than 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report’s survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation’s top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $496 million awarded in the 2020 fiscal year.

Digital Healthcare Platform HUED Lands $1.6M in Funding from Serena Williams and Others

Digital Healthcare Platform HUED Lands $1.6M in Funding from Serena Williams and Others

By goodblacknews on August 10, 2021

The digital health start-up HUED, founded in 2018 by Kimberly Wilson with the aim of connecting patients with Black and Latinx healthcare providers, recently raised $1.6 million in seed funding led by women venture capitalists.

According to thegrio.com, round participants included Serena Williams‘ Serena Ventures, Osage Venture Partners, Northwestern Mutual, Black Founders Matter, Gingerbread Capital, and angel investor and health industry leader, Halle Tecco.

To quote the grio.com:

“Embarking on such a bold mission to reimagine the healthcare system for communities of color is no easy feat,” said Wilson, Founder and CEO of HUED in a press release. “It’s incredible to have received the support of incredible investors, such as Female Founders Fund, to further our mission to empower and train healthcare workers on anti-racist practices, implicit bias, and providing culturally sensitive care for Black and Latinx populations.”

“We are thrilled to back Kimberly and her vision for HUED in making healthcare more equitable for millions of Black and Latinx patients,” said Anu Duggal, Founding Partner of Female Founders Fund. “She has built exciting traction with a strong team and we believe the HUED model will have a massive impact on healthcare outcomes in this country.”

HUED uses a patient’s insurance provider and region to match providers. The site also allows patients to access reviews about specific providers before making an appointment.

Wilson’s own 2017 healthcare scare inspired her to create HUED. When she ended up in the emergency room with complications related to fibroids, Wilson has stated that her mostly white male doctors “dismissed my pain.”

Through this funding round, grio.com reports, HUED will be able to add to its growing ranks of providers and train over 5,000 healthcare workers nationwide.

Read more: https://thegrio.com/2021/08/09/black-healthcare-app-gets-investment/

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/17/this-founder-created-a-platform-to-address-racial-bias-in-health-care.html

One Day After CPR Training, Torri’ell Norwood, 17, Saves her Best Friend’s Life

One Day After CPR Training, Torri’ell Norwood, 17, Saves her Best Friend’s Life

By goodblacknews on March 31, 2021

[Torri’ell Norwood (in the back) poses for a selfie with A’zarria Simmons. Norwood performed CPR on Simmons after a car accident on February 20. Photo via CNN.com]

Torri’ell Norwood, 17, saved the life of her best friend A’zarria Simmons, 16, just one day after learning basic life support in class at her high school, Lakewood High, according to cnn.com.

Norwood was driving three friends home in St. Petersburg, Florida, on February 20 of this year when another driver slammed into her from her left and sent her car careening.

To quote cnn.com:

The impact jammed shut the driver’s side door, so Norwood climbed out the front window. Two of her friends managed to get out of the car unharmed, but the collision caused Simmons to hit her head on the backseat window.
“When I turned around, I didn’t see A’zarria running with us,” Norwood told CNN. “So, I had to run back to the car as fast as I can. She was just sitting there unresponsive.”

And that’s when the training Norwood had just learned kicked in. She pulled Simmons out of the back seat, avoiding broken glass from the window.

“That’s when I checked her pulse on her neck. I put my head against her chest, and I didn’t really hear nothing. So that’s when I just started doing CPR on her.”

After the 30 compressions and two rescue breaths, Simmons regained consciousness. Paramedics quickly arrived and rushed her to the hospital, where she received stitches for a gash in her forehead.

“I don’t remember the hit or anything about accident. But when I woke up, I was in the hospital. I was in shock. I was trying to figure out how I got there,” Simmons said.

Norwood participates in Lakewood’s Athletic Lifestyle Management Academy. The program exists to prepare students for varied careers in the health sciences.

Thanks to Norwood’s quick thinking,CPR lesson retention and heroic actions, Simmons is recovering well. Both friends plan to pursue careers in the medical field.

“I do want to be a nurse,” Norwood said. “I know that if somebody was in need of help, I’d go to the rescue.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/19/us/iyw-teen-saves-life-cpr-trnd/index.html

Obamacare Enrollment Period Extended to August 15 by Biden Administration; Premiums Decreased

Obamacare Enrollment Period Extended to August 15 by Biden Administration; Premiums Decreased

By goodblacknews on March 24, 2021

According to usatoday.com, the Biden administration is extending a special opportunity for people to sign up for government-subsidized health insurance through the federally run marketplace, commonly referred to as as Obamacare.

The special enrollment period will no longer end May 15 but extend to Aug. 15 to give people more time to take advantage of the expanded subsidies included in the recently passed $1.9 trillion stimulus package.

The package increased the subsidies already available to people who don’t receive health insurance from an employer or through a government plan like Medicare or Medicaid.

The package also makes the subsidies newly available for people earning more than four times the federal poverty level, which is about $51,520 for a single person.

Additionally, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, insurance premiums will decrease an average of $50 a month per person, but some people could possibly save several hundred dollars each month. The savings are available starting April 1.

President Joe Biden made the announcement yesterday on the 11th anniversary of the day former President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law.

“[O]n this anniversary, we should remember just how close we have come to losing that act we so fought so hard for,” Biden said during an event in Ohio. “And we have a duty not just to protect it, but to make it better and keep becoming a nation where healthcare is a right for all and not a privilege for a few.”

People who already have insurance through an exchange can either apply the new subsidies to their existing plan to lower their monthly payments or can switch plans. Switching could allow someone to buy a plan with a much lower deductible, with the higher subsidy covering that plan’s higher premium.

To learn more: https://www.healthcare.gov/apply-and-enroll/how-to-apply/

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/23/obamacare-enrollment-period-extended-health-insurance-subsidies/6972257002/

Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett is Key Scientist in Development of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine

Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett is Key Scientist in Development of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine

By goodblacknews on December 15, 2020

[Photo: Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett via commons.wikipedia.org]

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) recently reported the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett has been instrumental in developing is highly effective, and will likely ship for national distribution to millions of Americans this weekend.

According to abcnews.go.com, when Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and a leader during the coronavirus pandemic, was asked a blunt question during a forum hosted last week by the National Urban League about the input of African American scientists in the vaccine process, Dr. Fauci did not hesitate when giving his answer.

“The very vaccine that’s one of the two that has absolutely exquisite levels — 94 to 95% efficacy against clinical disease and almost 100% efficacy against serious disease that are shown to be clearly safe — that vaccine was actually developed in my institute’s vaccine research center by a team of scientists led by Dr. Barney Graham and his close colleague, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, or Kizzy Corbett,” Fauci told the forum. “Kizzy is an African American scientist who is right at the forefront of the development of the vaccine.”

To quote the abcnews.go.com article:

Corbett is an expert on the front lines of the global race for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, and someone who will go down in history as one of the key players in developing the science that could end the pandemic.

She is one of the National Institutes of Health‘s leading scientists behind the government’s search for a vaccine. Corbett is part of a team at NIH that worked with Moderna, the pharmaceutical company that developed one of the two mRNA vaccines that has shown to be more than 90% effective.

Even before Corbett took on one of the most challenging tasks of her professional career, she was a force to be reckoned with. As a student,she was selected to participate in Project SEED, a program for gifted minority students that allowed her to study chemistry in labs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and eventually landed a full ride to the University of Maryland Baltimore County, according to The Washington Post.

Corbett spent her summers at laboratories and earned a summer internship at the NIH, the very place where she would be instrumental in developing a vaccine for the coronavirus.

After graduating, Corbett enrolled in a doctorate program at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she worked as a research assistant studying virus infections and eventually received a PhD in microbiology and immunology, according to her LinkedIn page.

Her work with such pathogens began when she joined the NIH’s Vaccine Research Center as a postdoctoral fellow in 2014.

To read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/kizzmekia-corbett-african-american-woman-praised-key-scientist/story?id=74679965

The American Medical Association Declares Racism a Public Health Threat in New Policy

The American Medical Association Declares Racism a Public Health Threat in New Policy

By goodblacknews on November 20, 2020

New policy adopted by physicians at the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Special Meeting of its House of Delegates (HOD) recognizes racism as a public health threat and commits to actively work on dismantling racist policies and practices across all of health care.

In June 2020, the AMA Board of Trustees acknowledged the health consequences of violent police interactions and denounced racism as an urgent threat to public health, pledging action to confront systemic racism, racial injustice and police brutality.

The new policy approved by the AMA, representing physicians and medical students from every state and medical specialty, opposes all forms of racism as a threat to public health and calls on AMA to take prescribed steps to combat racism, including: (1) acknowledging the harm caused by racism and unconscious bias within medical research and health care; (2) identifying tactics to counter racism and mitigate its health effects; (3) encouraging medical education curricula to promote a greater understanding of the topic; (4) supporting external policy development and funding for researching racism’s health risks and damages; and (5) working to prevent influences of racism and bias in health technology innovation.

“The AMA recognizes that racism negatively impacts and exacerbates health inequities among historically marginalized communities. Without systemic and structural-level change, health inequities will continue to exist, and the overall health of the nation will suffer,” said AMA Board Member Willarda V. Edwards, M.D., M.B.A.

“As physicians and leaders in medicine, we are committed to optimal health for all, and are working to ensure all people and communities reach their full health potential. Declaring racism as an urgent public health threat is a step in the right direction toward advancing equity in medicine and public health, while creating pathways for truth, healing, and reconciliation.”

SolidaARiTy Movement Hosts Online Art Auction to Benefit Social Justice and Health Non-Profits Through 10/24

SolidaARiTy Movement Hosts Online Art Auction to Benefit Social Justice and Health Non-Profits Through 10/24

By goodblacknews on October 22, 2020

[Artists Isis Dua and Candyce Fabre: Photos via funddeed.com/solidarity]

The SolidARiTy movement includes over 20 artists who are creating thought-provoking pieces as a fundraiser and art auction that will benefit Claris Health and the Social Justice Learning Institute, both Los Angeles-based 501c3 nonprofits serving the most vulnerable and at-risk people in the area.

The fundraiser is online now at https://funddeed.com/solidarity and the art auction is live now thru October 24th at https://supportsolidarity.com.

The pieces will be available for viewing all that week at Resin Gallery in Hermosa Beach via scheduled appointment for safe social distance measures. Contact Resin Gallery at 831.601.8137 or email info@southbayartistcollective.org.

SolidARiTy was organized by South Bay residents Janne Kouri and Chad Drew, with support from South Bay Artist Collective member Wendy Stillman and founder Rafael McMaster.

There are more than 25 unique pieces being created and auctioned, from artists including world renowned photographers Bo Bridges and Brent Broza, encaustic artist Sabrina Armitage, and popular contemporary artists including, Drica Lobo, Wendy Stillman, Daniel Maltzman, JaniceSchultz, Candyce Fabre, Vienna Pitts, Rafael McMaste, Isis Dua, Ms. Yellow, MCHS Student Charlie Kwon, and more.

Harvard Medical Society Renamed in Honor of Harvard Alumnus and Professor Dr. William Augustus Hinton

Harvard Medical Society Renamed in Honor of Harvard Alumnus and Professor Dr. William Augustus Hinton

By goodblacknews on October 19, 2020

[Dr. William Augustus Hinton. Photo via images.harvard.edu]

Harvard Medical School has approved renaming the Oliver Wendell Holmes Academic Society in honor of the late Dr. William Augustus Hinton, a former HMS clinical professor of bacteriology and immunology and 1912 HMS graduate.

The recommendation from a Faculty Council Subcommittee on Artwork and Cultural Representations task force is part of an ongoing effort to ensure that HMS buildings, symbols, academic societies and public spaces fully reflect the institution’s mission and values.

To quote from The Harvard Crimson:

Holmes was one of the first American intellectuals to promote the racist doctrine of eugenics. In 1850, he revoked the acceptances of the Medical School’s first three Black students, writing that the “intermixing of the white and black races in their lecture rooms is distasteful to a large portion of the class and injurious to the interests of the school.”

Hinton — a 1905 graduate of the College and later HMS — specialized in the fields of bacteriology and immunology. He created a new diagnostic blood test for syphilis, one the U.S. Public Health Service later adopted.

Earlier this year, two medical students launched a petition to rename the former Holmes Society due to Holmes’s support of eugenics and racism towards Black and Indigenous people. The petition garnered over 1000 signatures from HMS and HSDM faculty, administrators, students, and alumni.

“Me Too” Founder Tarana Burke Making Activism More Accessible Via “Me Too Act Too” Site

“Me Too” Founder Tarana Burke Making Activism More Accessible Via “Me Too Act Too” Site

By goodblacknews on October 15, 2020

[Me Too Founder Tarana Burke photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images]

The Me Too Movement against sexual violence and sexual harassment gained widespread attention three years ago. In 2020, the movements against racial violence, police brutality and the ongoing struggle with the coronavirus pandemic have also emerged as dominating issues of our times.

According to the Huffington Post, Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too Movement and a longtime activist, knows people are outraged ― and overwhelmed. So Burke and the Me Too organization, in collaboration with creative data marketing agency FCB/SIX, are launching a new digital platform called “Me Too Act Too” that allows activists, experienced and new, to educate themselves and get involved.

To quote from Huff Post:

“I think one of the mistakes that we make on the movement side is that there’s so much judgment around what it means to be an activist or what it means to be active. And if you’re not doing it a certain way, then you’re not really contributing. And that’s not true,” Burke told HuffPost.

Me Too Act Too is a crowd-sourced digital platform that gives “survivors, advocates and allies tools to work toward a world free of sexual violence,” according to the organization. The website is meant to be an accessible tool for people who may not see themselves as career activists or who do not have the ability to devote a large amount of time to this work.