'American Diagnosis': Two Indigenous Students Share Their Paths to Medicine

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In 1890, Dr. Charles Eastman was among the first in the United States to graduate from medical school one of the indigenous people. Today, one of his descendants, Victor Lopez-Carmen, is a third-year student at Harvard Medical School. He described the sense of isolation there.

“I do feel lonely. I don’t have any Aboriginal people around me to turn to,” Lopez-Carmen said.

Less than 1% of US medical students identify as American Indian or Alaska Native. That’s according to a 2018 report by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Society of American Indian Physicians.

Lopez Carmen is trying to change that. In 2021, he co-founded the Ohiyesa Premedical Program, which provides guidance and support for Native American students in the medical school application process.

Ashton Glover Gatewood at America’s first affiliated Native tribe while Lopez-Kamen mentors prospective medical students in Boston, Oklahoma Medical school finds community. Gatewood attended Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Cherokee Nation.

“I told my husband about it and he said, ‘It sounds like they’re training you in a medical school. You have to leave,'” Gatewood said.

Noting a “momentum” in medical training, she said the health-care disparities experienced by Aboriginal people could one day be reduced.

Episode 9 explores the barriers that Native Americans face to becoming doctors, including the story of two medical students who join the ranks of Native American healthcare workers

Voiceovers for episodes:

Victor Lopez – Carmen , Harvard Medical School student — @vlocarmen