@joelbervell: A few weeks ago, I stood on stage and accepted the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for Conviction. In my speech, I wanted to shine a light on one of the quietest and most harmful forms of systemic racism in medicine: the GFR equation. When I was a medical student, I learned that bias isn’t always loud. Sometimes it hides in plain sight, written into the data and the systems we trust. But I also learned something else: we all have a voice, and change begins the moment we choose to use it. Two years ago, someone messaged me on social media to say her sister had been moved five years up the kidney transplant list after her doctors reviewed the new GFR standards, the result of years of work led by Black physicians and researchers who pushed for a more accurate, equitable equation. Since then, I’ve heard from many families whose loved ones experienced the same shift after hearing about it from my videos. It’s a reminder that amplifying the truth can help move change forward, and that when we speak up together, lives are transformed. #tiktokencyclopediacontest

Joel Bervell, MD

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Friday 21 November 2025 01:45:59 GMT