Jalen Robinson: Committed to Equitable Health in Rural Areas
Jalen Robinson is a native of Baker County, Georgia, a rural county in southwest Georgia of approximately 3,000 people served by one primary care physician. The closest hospital is 30 miles away and serves all of southwest Georgia. While Jalen’s love of medicine and enrollment in Morehouse’s School of Medicine is an occasion of pride and joy, his interest in medicine is the result of a year of heartache and great sadness for his family. In 2018, four members of his close-knit family succumbed to cancer and secondary cardiovascular disease conditions, and one 38-year-old cousin with a history of heart problems died of a sudden heart attack.
“At one time, my cousin needed a pacemaker, and I searched tirelessly online about heart disease and pacemakers. One day I came across a staggering statistic: The primary cause of death of Black men and women is cardiovascular disease. At that point, I began to realize that most African American men and women in my community also suffered from heart-related disease and lack of adequate health access and timely treatment.” It was these revelations and personal experiences that Jalen says “added fuel to my growing passion to become a physician committed to addressing health disparities associated with cardiovascular disease.”
A member of the 绿巨人视频 Scholars Program’s Class of 2021, Jalen focuses in his research on “Thromboplastin-1’s Effects on Arterial Elasticity in Sickle Cell Disease.”
Jalen graduated from Morehouse College in 2021 and was very engaged and active on campus, including being a contributing writer for the college’s student newspaper. He was scheduled to participate in the Germany Stem Launch Study Tour Program while a student at Morehouse, which would have taken him to Berlin and Munich. Unfortunately, Covid-19 pandemic restrictions sidelined the program.
Now entering his last year of study at Morehouse School of Medicine, Jalen is committed to tackling health disparities as a cardiologist. “I hope to further expand my knowledge on the impact of cardiovascular disease in my community and other underserved communities across the nation. I hope to assist in addressing the need for minority health care professionals who treat and research the effects of cardiovascular disease and stroke. … I want to be part of the solution in educating rural communities and putting needed attention on the large gap in health disparities, access and treatment of this underserved segment of the population.”
