This Black History Month we join the community in honoring the sacrifices and celebrating the accomplishments of Black Americans.
Black innovators have made and continue to make contributions to health care and public health that protect the lives of everyone in our communities. Two of those innovators are Dr. Charles Drew and Dr. Ionia Rollin Whipper.
Dr. Charles Drew was a surgeon and medical researcher who studied blood, blood transfusions, and blood banking. He developed a method to preserve blood plasma for transfusions, which saved countless lives through large-scale blood banks during World War II.
Dr. Ionia Rollin Whipper was a public health reformer and obstetrician in the early 1900s. After discovering the unsanitary conditions some young poor mothers were forced to live, she traveled throughout the South during the first World War to educate Black mothers and midwives about public health and hygiene.
Stay tuned for more stories about public health heroes throughout Black History Month.
Original source can be found here.
