In June, a story circulated online about how Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, one of the most famous academic medical centers in the United States, and a major Harvard Medical School-affiliated institution, decided that it would take down physician portraits that were hanging in a popular and historic lecture theater.
The reason? Well, it was felt that the portraits were predominantly of white male physicians, who had been esteemed teachers and leaders of medicine over the decades. In today’s environment of wanting to promote inclusiveness and diversity, it was felt that these pictures were “the wrong message to send.”
After this story was made public (you can read the Boston Globe article), it was widely circulated online. I, myself, learned of the story when some physicians (also from major academic centers) started sharing the story on social media, predominantly feeling proud of Brigham’s decision.
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