‘So much more to do’: A hospital system’s campaign to confront racism — and resistance to change — makes early strides
BOSTON — When a routine cancer screening came back showing an elevated PSA reading, George Brickhouse knew he should take it seriously. His father had been treated for prostate cancer and his brother had dealt with a scare. But the urologist he went to see started ordering tests without fully explaining why. And when he couldn’t get through to a live person to schedule an MRI, he gave up trying to find out whether he had cancer. “I wasn’t comfortable with being pushed through,” he said.
Then Brickhouse met Quoc-Dien Trinh. It was during a Zoom meeting for Black men, part of an outreach program run by Mass General Brigham where Trinh and other physicians walked through the process of screening and treating prostate cancer — and took time to listen to Brickhouse’s concerns. A basketball coach who also runs a youth advocacy nonprofit, Brickhouse felt encouraged, he said, and open to coming in for an appointment.
