Dr. Linda Barry, A Black Woman Surgeon Moving the Needle Closer to Health Equity

UConn Health is celebrating Black History Month. In this Q & A article find out more about what inspired Dr. Linda Barry to become a surgeon, how her perspective as a Black woman shaped her career path, and her steadfast drive to diversify the future health care workforce, eliminate health disparities, and achieve health equity.

Q. What inspired your career in medicine?
A. I grew up in Brooklyn, NY. My parents, who immigrated from the Caribbean, always stressed that a good education is the most important factor to obtaining success. Their unwavering support set the groundwork for my pursuit of medicine. However, I knew that I wanted to be a surgeon at 13 years old when I stumbled upon a PBS documentary about the first artificial heart transplant in the United States. I was fascinated with the symphony of movement and coordinated dexterity of the surgeons who were doing all this inside a person’s chest. At the same time, it wasn’t gory like the horror movies I had seen. Then it concludes with the patient, Barney Frank, sitting up talking and clearly recovering. Literally at that moment, I realized that this is what I want to be. I want to be a surgeon who can clinically identify a problem and definitively treat it with surgery.

Q. Why a health care career?
A. It may sound a bit cliché, but I genuinely wanted to help people. I often saw people get care that I knew was substandard. I was very aware at a young age from my encounters with the health care system that there were very few physicians who looked like me. Even throughout medical school, I never met a Black woman surgeon. Therefore, I believed I could make a meaningful contribution in the community given my perspectives and drive. There is a saying that “You can’t be what you can’t see.” I wanted to be the embodiment of whom others can see (a Black woman surgeon) and aspire to be. I also had seen and experienced the inequities in the system despite having a great education and great insurance coverage. I was motivated to do my part to address such issues.

Q. What led you to UConn School of Medicine?
A. I had been in clinical practice for several years and realized that private practice did not enable me to pursue my research interests. I also missed teaching and engaging with students outside of the operating room. As one of the few Black women hepatobiliary surgeons in Northern California and nationally at the time, I realized that it would be hard to recruit other underrepresented students or women into surgery and hepatobiliary surgery in particular, if I did not have more opportunities to engage with them beyond a chance encounter in the OR. UConn School of Medicine enabled me to do all those things.

 Q. As the interim director, what is your vision for the UConn Health Disparities Institute?
A. The UConn Health Disparities Institute is a dynamic center for community engagement, research, and advocacy. HDI is focused on the premise of “producing evidence-for-action and implementing strategies designed to eliminate health disparities and advance health equity among Connecticut’s minority and medically underserved populations” as noted on our website. What that means is broadening our scope of engagement on multiple levels. This entails creating forums for the community to share and learn about resources that will empower them as they seek medical care. I envision community members and organizations as becoming active partners in research opportunities to facilitate impactful community participatory research. I hope to engage faculty to foster collaborative research opportunities, provide educational products (forums, lectures, and high profile speakers) to promote a more active approach in addressing and eliminating health disparities seen during the clinical encounter to the health care system itself. I also see the work of HDI concentrating on the aspects of the health care system that perpetuates health disparities via assessments of policies and initiatives that impact health care outcomes especially among marginalized communities. We need to move the needle to eliminate health disparities by providing evidence-based solutions to effect system change and finally achieve health equity.

Q. Why is your work in the Office of Multicultural and Community Affairs at UConn School of Medicine so critically important?
A. Innovation, discovery, education, and service are the key tenets of the mission of UConn School of Medicine. Foundational to achieving excellence in these domains is a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The Office of Multicultural and Community Affairs serves to aid in the fulfillment of that ongoing commitment. It focuses on developing programming and initiatives that amplify diversity, equity, and inclusion while cultivating leadership, integrity, and engaged citizenship among our students, faculty, and staff. We are here as a resource for and to support the School of Medicine community, particularly for those representing diversity in all its varied expressions, including but not limited to, gender, race, ethnicity, various abilities, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Q. What does it mean to you professionally and personally to be a Black woman leader in medicine?
A. As a Black woman, I do not have the luxury of separating my race from my gender. I embody the intersectionality of these identities. When I look back at my journey to this point, I realize my being here today was not guaranteed. I knew failure was not an option as I navigated challenges which could have easily derailed me. Therefore, I do not take my position as a Black woman leader lightly. This is why I am committed to advocating for the next generation of leaders in medicine and the biomedical sciences, particularly women and those from underrepresented groups. It is important to share our stories particularly when they demonstrate that our career paths were often not a smooth, straightforward, nor assured one yet we persevered and succeeded.

Q. This Black History Month, what advice do you have for others working in health care or those who may be in need of greater health care access?
A. While I always have had the perspective that Black history is American history, this month provides the opportunity to learn more about the history of the lived Black experience beyond the commonly referenced standard bearers such as Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. There is so much that Black Americans have contributed to the country that remain unknown to the general population. For example, how many people know that Dr. Charles Drew was a Black surgeon who developed the techniques of blood preservation and storage that led to the establishment of the blood banks we have today. Many would be surprised to know that the lifesaving vaccines we have today have roots in the tradition of enslaved West Africans who practiced inoculation which were utilized by enslavers to control the spread of smallpox. It is equally important to know the history often marked by inequity and the inherent devaluation of Black people. The legacy of this history persists today and shows up in our clinics, often unrecognized. More recently, we got rid of the African American subcategory of renal filtration on lab results which was predicated on the erroneous assumption that there was a biological difference among races.  We need to connect the dots to see the negative impact on our patients such as higher number of Black patients on dialysis and their lower referral rate for transplants. We put a lot of onus on the patient, advising them on ways to improve one’s health on an individual level, but do not attribute sufficient responsibility on the system that has structural bias/racism embedded in it. We cannot dismiss the impact of living in underresourced communities and the lack of job/educational opportunities on the health of the patients we treat. We all need to recognize health disparities on an individual level during the clinical encounter and directly address them when we can.

Q. Why is remembering and learning from our history so important?
A. I want to speak to the tumultuous times we are in. We cannot erase history nor pretend it does not exist. Learning about Black history is part of the collective narrative of the story of America. It permeates so many aspects of life today. Many of the disparities we see today are rooted in that history. As I see regressive policies enacted around the country that undermine learning about the stories and work of underrepresented and marginalized communities, I am reminded of a notable quote: “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” All our stories have value. However, I must believe that there are many who recognize this and can be fierce advocates, especially among the next generation of future leaders. So many of us working in DEI are vested in creating the space and opportunities to move us forward in that context closer to equity in general and health equity in particular.