Chidiebere Ibe, medical student and aspiring neurosurgeon, who will enter Kyiv Medical University in Ukraine next month, amazed the world with the first-ever medical illustration of a black pregnant woman with a black fetus, after recently went viral on Twitter, is now selling the image as a non-fungible token, or NFT.
The jpeg is set for sale in one of the most popular platforms for selling digital art, Opensea.io, for a price of 10 polygon, roughly $39,500.
Polygon is a blockchain that provides scalable, secure and instant transactions with Ethereum currencies and it is widely used in Opensea platform.
The medical student with his art hopes to change the medical representation:
“This collection is about diversity, representation, and inclusion. I am changing the narrative by illustrating the human body in black skin, and changing how the black person is viewed and represented. Historically, the black person was never been represented in medical illustrations and arts, and I am changing that.”
The representation of the human body in black skin, in medical books, according to a study only 4.5% is with a dark skin tone, leading to an overrepresentation of light skin and underrepresentation of dark skin.
Racial minorities are still often absent at the generic level, creating possibly a bias in medical treatment.
Ibe, with his intent said: “This image is so significant because it represents inclusion, diversity, and the beginning of a revolution in healthcare. The representation of black people in medical materials is changing because of this image.”
