Detroit Healthcare: Dr. Abdul El Sayed on re-opening city health department

Dr. Abdul El Sayed was a professor and researcher at Columbia University when he received a job offer: To lead the re-opened health department of the city that had shut it down during the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. It was 2015. Detroit was under new leadership and was beginning city services again. The department's main headquarters had been closed. He has a small staff with a big city to serve. In this interview, conducted by journalist Shiraz Ahmed in 2022 for a health humanities project reflecting on this period in the city's history, El-Sayed reflects on how he prepared for this challenge, what he accomplished and diagnoses the problems facing American healthcare today. Produced by Shiraz Ahmed, Desmond Love and Eleanore Catolico / Alive in Detroit https://www.alivedetroit.org