DENVER — Actor Jocko Sims and Dr. Nia Schwann Mitchell joined forces at SeriesFest: Season 10, an annual TV festival in Denver to participate in a panel on the importance of Black doctors.
The event included a screening of the TV show “New Amsterdam” followed by a panel discussion on representation in medicine on the big screen and in real life medical settings.
Sims, who played Dr. Floyd Reynolds on the show “New Amsterdam,” said the role taught him about the impact he can have on future generations who watch the show and see a Black man playing the role of a doctor.
“Being on New Amsterdam, I had parents reach out to me to say, ‘Thank you for the role that you’ve played… My Black son or daughter now want to be doctors because of Dr. Reynolds.’ And that was very inspirational,” Sims said. “I think it was about that time where I started to realize, well, this show and this role that I have is making a greater impact than I realized. And I started to look and I started to learn about the disparities in health care.”
Sims said those disparities recently hit close to home.
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