Join popular WJNI radio host Terry Base, The Medi’s Garcia Williams, and Sidney Nelson, III, MD, chief medical officer at The Medical Home Development Group in Washington, DC, for a conversation about the social determinants of health! On Monday morning, Dr. Nelson discussed how, for people of color, the quality and effectiveness of their medical care can be specifically related to their cultural connections with their doctors, and yet there has been a notable decrease in the number of people of color entering the medical profession. Listen in below!

​Dr. Nelson, a native of Seattle who has lived in the Washington, DC metro area since 2002, received his medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine and completed his internal medicine residency at York Hospital. He is board certified in internal medicine and previously practiced as a hospitalist (hospital-based physician) at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore for more than 10 years. He currently serves as chief medical officer for The Medical Home Development Group in Washington, DC, a multi-location healthcare practice focused on the Patient-Centered Medical Home model for which The Medi serves as nonprofit partner, and also has his own private practice, One World Healthcare, in Columbia, MD. 

​He is among a group of select medical professionals who have joined forces with the podcast host, bestselling author, and award-winning physician Dr. Dale Okorodudu to promote his movement on increasing awareness and providing solutions regarding the staggeringly disproportionate lack of Black males in medicine. Author of Black Men in White Coats: 100 Rules for Success, a book addressing the social determinants of health and sharing lessons learned from his podcast, also titled Black Men in White Coats, Dr. Okorodudu had interviewed guests for his podcast, and those conversations in turn spawned a full documentary highlighting the importance of physicians of color available to provide healthcare to our communities. (If you’re interested in viewing this documentary, fill out our survey at www.themedi.org/medi-mondays-episode-44!) 

​Dr. Nelson is a member of the American Medical Association (AMA), National Medical Association (NMA), and the Society of Hospital Medicine. He is also a founding member of the Onyx Medical Society, a Maryland chapter of the NMA, which is the largest and oldest national organization representing African American physicians and their patients in the US, and helped organize a highly successful community premiere of the Black Men in White Coats documentary during Black History Month.