Medical Mythbuster Joel Bervell explains why representation matters — in medicine and media

What motivates Joel Bervell, a.k.a. the Medical Mythbuster, to create social media content addressing racial disparities, the hidden history of medicine, and biases in healthcare? 

He’s seen how it can literally save lives.

A year after Bervell posted a video about disparities in pulse oximeters for Black patients, a man reached out to share that during the pandemic, he had reported to the hospital with shortness of breath, a fever and COVID symptoms. The pulse oximeter reported 100% oxygen saturation, so he was told to go home.

“But he felt horrible, and he had recently seen my video” showing pulse oximeters can report falsely high oxygen readings in Black patients, Bevell says. “And so he told the doctors.. I want to stay here at the hospital. Is that okay?”

The doctors let him stay, and the man ended up crashing the night, ending up in the ICU with intubation. He’s grateful he survived, and later reached out to Bervell to say, “because of your video, I felt confident being able to say, ‘I don't know if this is accurate for me, I don't feel well. I want to stay.’”

Bervell says this is why he creates videos like these, to help people understand medical issues “so they can feel confident to let their needs be known” to health care providers.

Hear more on this story and the latest adventures of the Medical Mythbuster Joel Bervell, who joined Movement Is Life’s summit as a closing plenary speaker, and spoke with Board member Dr. Erick Santos for this podcast episode.

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