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How Sci-Fi Creates Better Doctors
One bioethicist at UTHealth uses science fiction to educate medical students about racial bias
A philosopher by training, Keisha Ray, who now researches racial disparity in health care, has never been scared to ask big, bold questions about humanity.
Having grown up in a medical family (her mom and grandma were both nurses and operated a nursing home), “I was always interested in medicine, but I knew I didn’t want to be a clinician,” she says. “My interest in medicine has always been the philosophical questions: What do we owe people, and why do we treat some people different than others?”
Focusing on the field of bioethics while pursuing her philosophy degree felt like a match made in heaven: She could contribute to justice in medicine in her own way, by addressing questions about how to treat people when they’re at their most physically vulnerable. Now, as an assistant professor and bioethicist with the Center for Humanities and Ethics at UTHealth in Houston, Ray adds another personal interest to her work: science fiction.
This year, Ray launched her bioethics and science fiction elective at the McGovern Medical School, using a mix of essays, TV episodes, and a film from 2000 — Flowers for Algernon — to prompt discussions on ethics in healthcare.
So far, the course has received rave reviews, and Ray is hopeful that as more students learn about health care through sci-fi, they’ll have the tools they need to dismantle issues contributing to racial disparity in their own practice.
Elemental talked to Ray about why sci-fi works, how her curriculum shapes medical students’ perspectives, and, of course, aliens.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Elemental: Why are medical schools such an important pipeline for preventing racial disparity in health care?
Keisha Ray: Racial disparity in health care is one of the most pressing topics facing medicine right now. We have a lot of research that says certain races get less health care or lesser quality health care than other races, and it’s usually people of color. In my work, I…
