Five Black Surgeons Are Leading Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Trauma Service For The First Time – AfroTech

History is being made at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

ABC News reported the hospital’s flagship Halsted Service in trauma and acute care surgery is now led by an all-Black team of senior residents and fellows, marking a first for the institution.

The history-making team is composed of doctors Valentine S. Alia, M.D. (second-year resident); Lawrence B. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H. (seventh-year resident); Ivy Mannoh, M.D. (third-year resident); Zachary Obinna Enumah, M.D., Ph.D., M.A. (ninth-year and critical care fellow); and Ifeoluwa “Ife” Shoyombo, M.D., M.P.H., M.S. (third-year resident).

This is significant because while 13.4% of the U.S. population is Black, only 5.6% of surgeons in training are Black, according to the National Institutes of Health.

“Between us, there are five MDs, two PhDs, and six master’s degrees—but more importantly, a shared commitment to serving the people of Baltimore,” Alia and Brown said in a joint post on Instagram. “We are Black history. We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams. And we’re just getting started.”

While the milestone is historic, the mission behind it runs even deeper for the doctors leading the charge.

Brown, the first physician in his family, told ABC News that he is driven by a mission to ensure equity remains at the center of patient care, research, and how programs are scaled within the health care system.

Enumah reflected on his parents, both of whom worked in medicine.

“Growing up in Columbus, Georgia, in the 1990s, I watched my parents, my mom, a family medicine doc, my dad, a general surgeon, show up to serve patients every day,” Enumah told ABC News.

Shoyombo also offered encouragement to those inspired by the announcement.

“The best part is that I get to save lives and have an impact every single day,” he expressed, according to the outlet. “To anyone who’s watching, realize that your dream and capacity can only be limited by you. And if you can think it, see it, then you can absolutely reach it.”