Building trust after causing harm

From 1935 until 1973, the Milbank Memorial Fund paid for services associated with the burials of men who died in the course of the United States Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee and Macon County Alabama. The funds included burial stipends that were used to incentivize their families to consent to autopsies.

The Fund has formally apologized to members of the Voices for Our Fathers Legacy Foundation (VFOFLF) and provided a financial gift. The Fund has also formed a partnership with VFOFLF and made organizational, programmatic, and communications commitments to racial equity.

Christopher F. Koller, President of the Milbank Memorial Fund, Lillie Tyson Head, President of VFOFLF, and Pamela Browner White, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer and Senior Vice President of Communications at the American Board of Internal Medicine and the ABIM Foundation, spoke about the importance of building trust by acknowledging past harm, committing to do better, and partnering for the long term to improve trust in the health system.