#56 Mending the multicultural healthcare divide through cultural brokership w/ Snigdha Nandipati
“The more time you spend with your patients, the more you get to learn about their story and understand where they’re coming from and why they have certain hesitations, why they have certain biases towards certain things, and you are able to work with them to then properly adjust a treatment to fit both their cultural beliefs and health needs.”
In what ways can cultural brokers tend to, and mend, the Western medical divide in order to ensure healthcare in multicultural regions is culturally competent and a safe space for BIPOC patients? How can cultural brokership aid us to bring out the best of both worlds (Western and Indigenous/cultural medicine) and collectively work towards a safer, more equitable and healthier future?
Today we are joined by Snigdha Nandipati, a patient advocate, writer, and first-generation Telugu-American with a strong curiosity for the sciences and a deep appreciation for the traditions of her Hindu culture. As a former Scripps National Spelling Bee champion and Yale graduate with a B.S. in Neuroscience, Snigdha has used her study of science, language, spirituality, and culture to guide her thought leadership. She has delivered a TEDx talk exploring the intersections of science and tradition and makes her authorial debut with A Case of Culture, a book about how patients from different cultures navigate the challenges of Western medicine. Snigdha and Agrita delve deeper into what inclusive cultural brokership can look like in Western healthcare, one which grants enough space and resources for cultural brokers, both within and outside the medical profession, to provide specialised care to BIPOC patients, especially those struggling to navigate practices foreign to them i.e immigrant patients.
What will be explored:
Snigdha's parents' immigration journey as a driving force for her work in medical cultural brokerage
Some measures the clinic Snigdha works for are taking to be cultural competent to fully support BIPOC patients
How to make cultural brokership in healthcare more inclusive i.e. also appointing cultural brokers outside of the medical profession
Specialising care particularly for immigrant patients who are struggling to navigate around foreign medical norms
How members of BIPOC communities can begin to have reparative conversations with family/community members sceptical about Western medical procedures/treatments
Necessary steps medical professionals need to take to ensure their practices do not follow a "one-size-fits-all" framework and that the space they provide for their patients is one that is safe and inclusive
