Science & Technology

Jenna C. Lester: Why skin disease is often misdiagnosed in darker skin tones | TED

Skin is one of the most powerful predictors of health, yet nearly half of all new dermatologists admit to feeling uncomfortable identifying health issues on darker skin tones — resulting in poorer health outcomes for patients of color. In this crucial talk, TED Fellow and dermatologist Jenna C. Lester shares her effort to extend medical…

Published

on

Skin is one of the most powerful predictors of health, yet nearly half of all new dermatologists admit to feeling uncomfortable identifying health issues on darker skin tones — resulting in poorer health outcomes for patients of color. In this crucial talk, TED Fellow and dermatologist Jenna C. Lester shares her effort to extend medical training beyond its current limited scope and ensure all medical students get trained in the full spectrum of diseases as they appear in all patients, regardless of skin tone.

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You’re welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know.

Become a TED Member:
Follow TED on Twitter:
Like TED on Facebook:
Subscribe to our channel:

TED’s videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at

5 Comments

  1. Jon D

    December 20, 2021 at 11:16 pm

    Medical misinformation

  2. Lagene Loney

    December 21, 2021 at 4:41 am

    I have been saying this all through nursing school. Sad.

  3. MOKUSAI

    December 21, 2021 at 5:01 pm

    your vidio good but u have one mistake
    your subtitle not working
    please fix it

  4. MOKUSAI

    December 21, 2021 at 5:05 pm

    i oftten watch your vidio with subtitle
    pls
    this mistake there is all video

  5. Gloria F

    December 22, 2021 at 10:11 am

    There is so much that people with dark skin have to deal with from medical professionals who are supposed to provide the best of care. Apparently that is not happening. Negative stereotypes in textbooks are just so harmful and so wrong!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending

Exit mobile version