At Aglow Dermatology, we pride ourselves on being skilled at meeting the dermatology needs of patients of all skin types.  We may not be able to help with everything, but we try to be as inclusive a possible.  We are aware of diversity.  I cannot say that this is true everywhere in healthcare.  I am not talking about racial or gender disparities.  I am talking about the common exclusion of the needs of patients born between 1961 and 1979– Generation X.

This morning on my way to work I was reviewing the agenda of a conference I was thinking of attending.  One of the discussion sessions was called “The Patient Room of the Future–Designing for Baby Boomers and Millennials.”  It made my heart sink.  When I went to medical school we advocated to have women and people of color included in clinical trials and to include them when we evaluated what a healthy person looked like (rather than just including them when we talked about pathology).  At the time, when we talked about the “average patient” we were referring to a 70 kg white man.  In dermatology, we have advocated to include skin of color in research and services.  Why do we now accept excluding Generation X when we plan for the future of healthcare?  We were the generation that executed and beta tested the digital revolution–and we are still here.  When considering today, or the future, we need to talk about this generation, and its needs, in healthcare.  Generation X should not be invisible.   #talkaboutmygeneration