How a medical student (and TikTok star) is revolutionizing the future of the health care system

As if juggling schoolwork, employment, volunteering, content creation and art weren’t enough, Joel Bervell can now add “TikTok’s medical myth buster” and “medical school revolutionary” to his resumé.

The Ghanian-American 26-year-old earned an impressive amount of academic honor as a third-year medical student at Washington State University, founded and led multiple mentorship groups to empower underrepresented students and mastered a sort of warmth that’s rare in medical professionals. He’s even a photographer whose gorgeous work hangs with precise symmetry on a gallery wall behind his desk.

You may know Bervell from social media, where he’s garnered hundreds of thousands of followers across platforms and a feature on the elite TikTok Discover List.

“I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there, but I think there’s also information that people don’t know about, that can help them … get better control of their health,” he told In The Know in an interview. “I highlight untold stories of marginalized patients, specifically people from BIPOC communities, about their health care experiences. I also share my life as a medical student.”

His video series “Racial Biases in Medicine” not only educates his followers on damaging prejudices that can seriously harm people of color, but it is leading to real change.

“People don’t realize [racial biases] begin way before you get to the doctor. It starts when [future doctors] are in medical school and the way [they] are trained to think about different issues,” he said.

Bervell said that in his first year of medical school, he was learning about cyanosis — a medical problem in which skin turns blue — and realized his dark skin was just not going to do that.

“What’s going to happen to patients who have darker skin or are Black like me if they have poor circulation or inadequate oxygenation of blood? I had this internal debate — do I raise my hand and ask this question?” he asked. “Would I look like that kid that’s just always thinking about weird things all the time?”

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