During February, we honor and celebrate Black History Month. Every year, a theme is chosen by the Association for the Study of African Life and History (ASALH). This year particularly hits home for us, as the theme of 2022 is "Black Health and Wellness."

The ASALH put together this list of books on Black Health and Wellness, and you'll see that the first book recommended is Medical Apartheid, written by University of Rochester alum Harriet Washington, who recently delivered the MLK Grand Rounds. Both the 2022 theme and this book explore how Black people have been underserved in health care. As Harriet says, "racism, not race, is a risk factor." I encourage you to watch her Grand Rounds, which you can view here.

All month long, you can visit URMC Celebrates for a new Medical History Maker spotlight each day, and join the 21 Day Racial Equity Challenge.

The first Black woman to graduate from the School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1972 was Ruby Belton, M.D. Today, Dr. Belton is an associate professor in the department of Imaging Sciences, where she specializes in all aspects of breast imaging. I hope that this month is a time of both reflection and celebration, when we honor the amazing accomplishments of Dr. Belton and so many others in the Black community.

Be well,
Ruth O'Regan, M.D.

Honors: Leslie Algase, M.D., a primary care physician, has been elected to the American College of Physicians (ACP) Board of Regents, beginning in April. She has been involved in the NY chapter of ACP for over 10 years, and is currently the chapter president.

Editorial: Timothy Holahan, D.O., from the division of Geriatrics & Aging, wrote an insightful article, "Where Has All the Justice Gone? A Review of Societal Justice Versus Individual Justice," which was featured in Caring for the Ages, the official newspaper of the Society for Post-Acute and Long-term Care Medicine.

Research: Valerie Lang, M.D., M.H.P.E., and Justin Hopkin, M.D., senior associate division chief and division chief respectively of Hospital Medicine, collaborated with the department of Psychiatry to write an original research article on "Proactive Integration of Mental Health Care in Hospital Medicine: PRIME Medicine" for the Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.

Case Report: Eric Huselton, M.D., from the division of Hematology/Oncology, co-authored the report "Synchronous B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and Serous Ovarian Carcinoma" in Case Reports in Oncology, which outlines the treatment of a patient that led to complete remission of both leukemia and ovarian cancer.

Available Now: Bystander and Microaggression Cards
The DEI team has created two quick-reference cue cards that are pocket-sized and easy to carry, which may help you in situations when you witness inappropriate behavior. These cards are resources in identifying circumstances of bias that warrant taking action, and offer advice on what to do or say.

These will be distributed to each division.

Open Access Publishing
The Miner Library now has open access agreements with several publishers that will help our researchers save money when publishing open access work. Our subscriptions now support article processing charge (APC) fees for our authors.

To learn more about open access publishing or get help identifying a journal for your manuscript submission, contact Daniel Castillo. If you would like to recommend an open access agreement with a publisher not currently listed, contact Liz Grace.