Health and Wellness
The goal of this new children’s program is to promote diversity in medicine
A Black medical student-turned-content creator has created a new animated children’s show to encourage diverse youth interested in medicine.
Joel Bervell stays well-known on the Internet as a “medical myth buster.” Continuing her mission to raise diversity in medicine, she’s going to now accomplish that together with her new children’s show.
Bervell goals to teach children about opportunities in the medical field while encouraging them to pursue this profession path. In September, Bervell shared on social media his intentions for the project, in addition to the Kickstarter fundraiser.
“I’m creating an animated digital television show to inspire the next generation of doctors, and I need your help,” the Ghanaian-American influencer explained. “For the past few years, I actually have been working on a project that I wish I had after I was growing up: *The Doctor Is In!* It is a mixed live-action/animated series for youngsters ages 3-5 in which Leland, a 5-year-old boy who he loves going to the doctor’s office, and I explore medical topics with Sammie’s stethoscope, Zada’s x-ray, and Otto’s bag.
The series will deal with a five-year-old black boy named Little Leland. His curiosity about medicine will lead him to discover new features of the sphere, including infections, body parts, and more. The show will teach science through animation and mixed reality to provide children of all backgrounds with an academic yet engaging program.
Other characters also appear in the series, comparable to “Zada” – the X-ray machine, “Sammie” – the stethoscope, and “Otto” – the doctor’s bag. Together they assist Little Leland learn more concerning the body and health in general.
The program hopes to help address the systemic problem of diversity in the medical field. Association of American Medical Colleges 2022 Physician Specialty Data Report revealed that only 5.7% of physicians discover as black. Although the number of black medical students has also increased, they still constitute only 10% of the overall cohort in the US.
Bervell is currently raising money on Kickstarter to produce the series. So far this has been the case he reached out 20% of its $60,000 goal, with a deadline of October thirty first.