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Draft:Joel Bervell

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Joel Bervell
Born
Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
NationalityAmerican
Education
Years active2019 - present
Websitehttps://joelbervell.com/

Joel Bervell is a Ghanaian-American Internet personality and medical student sometimes referred to as the "medical mythbuster."[1]

Early life and education

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Bervell was born in Richmond, British Columbia.[2] When he was two years old, his family moved to Mukilteo, Washington, where he was raised.[2][3][4][5] Bervell's parents are from Ghana, and his family made frequent trips to Ghana throughout his childhood.[4] Bervell's father is a civil engineer for Snohomish County and his mother worked as an administrator at a local hospital.[6][7]

While in middle school, Bervell and his siblings founded a nonprofit organization called Hugs for Ghana.[5] The nonprofit was founded in honor of his grandmother, who had died from malaria while living in Ghana.[8] The organization's first project was a stuffed animal drive which gathered more than 5,000 donations.[2] Between 2007 and 2022, Hugs for Ghana raised over $500,000 for medical and school supplies in Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Uganda.[5] Bervell and his family traveled to Africa each year to distribute the supplies.[2][9][10]

Bervell attended Kamiak High School, where he served as Student Body President and president of seven school clubs.[2][6] He graduated from the school in 2013.[5] He then attended Yale University, receiving a bachelor of arts degree in molecular cellular developmental biology in 2017.[4] Bervell's college education was funded by $150,000 in scholarships.[6] While at Yale, Bervell was on the Yale College Council and ran a mentorship program through Dwight Hall called the Jones Zimmermann Academic Mentoring Program.[11] Bervell began attending Boston University in 2017, receiving a master's degree in medical clinical sciences in 2019.[8] In 2019, Bervell was accepted to the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University.[4][5][12] He began attending the school in 2019 and is one of the first Black students at the medical college.[4][1]

Career

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In 2019, during his first year of medical school, Bervell created a TikTok account, posting his first video in December of that year.[4] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bervell read an article in the New England Journal of Medicine about pulse oximeters which cited a research finding that pulse oximeters have the ability to overestimate blood oxygen aspiration levels in people with darker skin.[4] Despite the research being decades old, the Food and Drug Administration did not have a warning on pulse oximeters.[12] In response, Bervell created a TikTok video about racial bias and pulse oximeters, which began a series on racial bias in medicine.[4][12] Following attention from Bervell's video, the FDA added a warning to their website about the effectiveness of pulse oximeters on darker skin.[7][12]

In 2021, Bervell was named a top TikTok "Voice for Change"[5][3] and was later awarded a TikTok Black Creatives Grant of $50,000 to work on his "dream project."[13][14]

By September 2022, Bervell had amassed more than 391,000 followers on TikTok and more than 60,000 followers on Instagram and had collaborated with US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy for a TikTok video.[15].[3] Bervell also received a message from a woman who was able to identify a precancerous lesion on on her foot after watching one of Bervell's videos.[15]

In 2023, Bervell was invited to join the White House's Healthcare Leaders in Social Media Roundtable.[1][16] Later that year, Bervell was named to Seattle's local Forbes 30 Under 30.[17] Bervell also signed a contract with a management agency, Kensington Gray.[18]

By February 2024, Bervell had more than 600,000 followers on TikTok and more than 200,000 followers on Instagram.[2] In March, Bervell appeared on the Kelly Clarkson Show.[19] On the show, Bervell discussed how he had made a video about a laboratory result called the Glomerular Filtration Rate or GFR. GFR is the best way to measure how well kidneys are working. To measure it a mathematical equation is used to estimated GFR instead of measuring it. Race was originally included in eGFR calculations, and for Black patients it increased the eGFR number, causing patients to be less likely to be diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, less likely to be referred to a kidney specialist, and less likely to receive a kidney transplant. During the segment, Kelly Clarkson invited the sister of a patient who had seen Bervell's video, which caused her to move up 5 years on the kidney transplant list. In April, Bervell was chosen as a TED Fellow.[20] As of August 2024 he has 438,000 followers on Instagram and 716,000 followers on TikTok.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Gross, Rachel E. (March 19, 2024). "The Unbearable Vagueness of Medical 'Professionalism'". New York Times. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Nishiwaki, Chris (February 5, 2024). "Most Influential, Health Care: Joel Bervell". Seattle Business Magazine. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Edwards, Jeanine (February 9, 2022). "In The Know by Yahoo Honors: Joel Bervell". Yahoo!. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h DiBenedetto, Chase (November 4, 2021). "Unpack racial biases in medicine with a myth-busting TikTokker". Mashable. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Podsada, Janice (April 5, 2022). "Joel Bervell: Highlighting racial disparities in medicine". Everett Herald. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  6. ^ a b c Turnbull, Lornet (May 4, 2016). "High Achieving Siblings Give Back In Many Ways". The Seattle Medium. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  7. ^ a b Smalls, Kavonte (January 3, 2023). "'How Come We Don't Know About This': Black Medical Student Known for Viral Videos Pushes for Equity In Health Care". Atlanta Black Star. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  8. ^ a b Zaske, Sara (February 15, 2022). "WSU med student fights racial bias in health one TikTok at a time". WSU Insider. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  9. ^ Avickson, Mike (August 5, 2011). "Hugs For Ghana Aids Pupils". Modern Ghana. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  10. ^ Akweley Okertchiri, Jamila (July 26, 2011). "Hugs For Ghana Donates To Hospitals". Modern Ghana. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  11. ^ Gonzalez, Susan (May 28, 2015). "George H.W. Bush honored by student leaders with an award for lifetime achievement". Yale News. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  12. ^ a b c d Weekman, Kelsey (November 4, 2021). "How a medical student (and TikTok star) is revolutionizing the future of the health care system: 'A lot of medicine is still crude'". Yahoo!. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  13. ^ "Meet the 10 recipients of the MACRO x TikTok Black Creatives Grant". TikTok. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  14. ^ Chan, J. Clara (November 16, 2021). "TikTok Teams With MACRO to Award $50,000 Grants to 10 Black Creators (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  15. ^ a b "One medical student's mission to end Black health disparities — and how he's utilizing social media". NPR Illinois. July 18, 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  16. ^ Holohan, Meghan (February 21, 2023). "Medical student shares surprising myths about race that persist in medicine". Today. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  17. ^ Jew, Pamela; Hasan, Zoya (August 9, 2023). "Under 30 Local". Forbes. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  18. ^ Gutelle, Sam (December 14, 2023). "Kensington Grey signs Joel Bervell, Maurice Kamara, and DeAndre Brown to expand diverse roster". Tubefilter. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  19. ^ "TikTok's 'Medical Mythbuster' Helps Save Lives By Tackling Racial & Gender Disparities In Healthcare". The Kelly Clarkson Show. March 25, 2024. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  20. ^ "Meet the 2024 class of TED Fellows". TED. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
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