FEATURE
WE’ RE ROLLING: The Story( So Far) of Kentucky Health
Aaron Burch
Today, Kentucky Health is now a staple of educational health care programming on KET. As of May 2017, the show is nearing 20 years in production and 250 shows taped, equaling roughly 125 hours of original content. Those who made Kentucky Health possible transformed a once distant goal of“ educating citizens about health issues” into a tangible and reliable resource for Kentucky residents.
Twenty-two years ago, Dr. Wayne Tuckson wasn’ t thinking about television. Rather, he wanted to address the health care disparity that existed between African-American and Caucasian communities. He, along with Kathy Mayberry-Washington founded The African-American Health Initiative( TAAHI) to correct this disparity.
“ The initiative had three main legs: education, research and prevention services,” Dr. Tuckson said. What they found early on was that those issues affecting the poor health status of the African-American community were not unique to that community, but also affected other racial and socioeconomic groups.
It became clear that those populations with poor health status often had a low health IQ, or a lack of awareness of normal health and disease states. This lack of understanding often limited the patient’ s ability and desire to participate in their own health care. It was thought that if health information could be presented in a non-threatening manner and made easily accessible, then health IQ could be raised.
Back in the late 1990s, as Dr. Tuckson began to imagine what a television show could look like, his initial plan for dissemination of these shows was to make copies of each episode on VHS and distribute them within lower income communities to businesses, churches, libraries, etc. New and topical health care information would be within reach as long as Louisville residents knew where to look.
So, from humble beginnings, the show began.
Originally titled Louisville Health, the program was taped at night in the video department of Norton Healthcare. Dr. Tuckson credits the head of Norton’ s Audio / Video Unit, Rucell Cobb, with the show finding its feet. Mr. Cobb would take the shows to the University of Louisville to make edits and smooth out the final cut. Also essential in the early days was Kathy Mayberry-Washington, who hosted a radio show devoted to healthy living. She became Dr. Tuckson’ s cohost and roving reporter, interviewing average residents of Louisville to see what they knew about basic health care dilemmas.
“ Initially, the idea was that she would talk to everyday people and ask them simple things like,‘ What are the signs of a heart attack?’ and I’ d use that to guide the show through different points,” Dr. Tuckson explained. This would become the format for the first few years of Louisville Health.
“ I probably could not have done the show without Kathy’ s help,” he said.“ She was very instrumental in the early years.”
Although Louisville Health was Dr. Tuckson’ s first time in front of a camera, he took to it naturally. He’ d been speaking in public since medical school, where even as a freshman he worked with the DC Chapter of the American Cancer Society giving community talks on cancer.“ I wasn’ t intimidated by the camera, because the people I worked with made starting out very easy,” he said.
While Dr. Tuckson was a natural, there were other hurdles to overcome. One of the most glaring issues was that the initial show had just one camera from which to tape every bit of footage needed.“ We might start with the camera on me, asking the guest a question. Then, once I asked the question, the filming would pause and the crew would turn the camera to the guest so they could answer. And back and forth like that,” Dr. Tuckson laughed.“ Our guests were very kind and patient with us.”
The first few years were a learning experience. As Louisville( continued on page 14)
12 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE