Keisha Ray discusses using stories to teach medical students about racial bias


By Angela Gomez, McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics
August 30, 2023

A recent article in Stat focuses on writing among physicians as a way to share their stories. In the article, “Emotional Dry Cleaning: A Writer Helps Doctors Share Their Stories—and Their Pain,” Keisha Ray, PhD, discusses using stories to teach medical students. She notes that telling stories can be powerful and expose students to racial health disparities. Ray developed the experiential race testimonies approach as a way to collect Black patients’ personal histories, using them to teach health humanities. The approach uses stories to share information about the impacts of disease that goes beyond the numbers and share stories students will remember.