Fat Med Student Fights Weight Bias in Medical Training — SkimNews
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- Jessica Rosenblum, a fourth-year M.D./M.P.H. student at Tufts University School of Medicine, writes that on her first day in the OR a nurse speed-walked down the hall to challenge her right to wear the only plus-sized turquoise scrubs the hospital stocked.
- Rosenblum says she has repeatedly witnessed clinicians mocking patients' weight during sign-out rounds, including one physician who shouted "They're all huge!" while reviewing a patient list, and a parent berating her 9-year-old daughter for snacking.
- She directs Medical Students for Size Inclusivity and holds a seat on the board of the Association for Weight and Size Inclusive Medicine, and has secured an annual slot to teach weight bias in her M.D. curriculum.
- Rosenblum cites a 2019 study finding "preliminary evidence of discrimination against facially unattractive and obese applicants in radiology resident selection," and says medical school admissions bias by body size has not been studied extensively.
- A mentor at another medical school told her the number of fat students appeared to rise after COVID-era virtual interviews, suggesting that in-person interviews had previously filtered out larger-bodied applicants by appearance.
- Rosenblum pushed back during a nutrition lecture against sweeping assumptions about larger-bodied patients and told a room of doctors that the term "morbid obesity" is a slur.
- She is finishing medical school and preparing family medicine residency applications, and told the 9-year-old patient that healthy bodies come in all shapes, sizes, and colors despite the mother's glare.
- On a psychiatry rotation, a security guard followed her into the locked ward vestibule to suggest she ask her doctor about GLP-1 medications, citing his own 50-pound loss as a "good deed."
Why it matters: Rosenblum argues that weight bias is structurally embedded in medical training — from admissions (where a 2019 study found preliminary discrimination against obese radiology applicants) through daily clinical culture, where BMI is a punchline at sign-out. If the physician workforce doesn't reflect the body-size distribution of patients, the care delivered to those patients is shaped by clinicians who don't share their lived experience.
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