About this Chat
We will explore weight bias in health care and medical education in this chat curated by Gina Nicoll. First we will discuss the essay “On being a fat medical student, at the start of our metabolism module” by Isabelle Lomax‐Sawyers, then turn our attention to another essay titled “How Health Care Bias Harms Fat Patients” by “Your Fat Friend.”
We are honored to announce that Isabelle Lomax-Sawyers will be joining this chat as a special guest.
Isabelle Lomax‐Sawyers: On being a fat medical student, at the start of our metabolism module
“When you talk to a fat patient about their weight, it is not the first time they have thought about it. It probably isn’t even the first time that day. I have been fat all my life to a greater or lesser extent and I don’t believe there has been a day when I have not been aware of it. I dread eating in public and squeezing into the backseat of full cars. I plead claustrophobia and refuse to get into elevators when they are anywhere close to capacity. I always know when I am the fattest person in the room.”
Your Fat Friend: How Health Care Bias Harms Fat Patients
“For so long, bodies like mine have been called an epidemic, a threatening sickness tearing through the population like a wildfire through a countryside. … But in these responses, in this research, a new epidemic emerges. This time, the epidemic isn’t our untamed bodies, but a distant lack of curiosity from health care providers.”