Florida Professor Uses Music to Teach Pharmacy Students About Diabetes

A professor from Florida A&M University is teaching future pharmacists how to save lives by singing.

Dr. Jamal Brown is a tenured professor of pharmacy at Florida A&M University who uses his musical gifts to imprint important lessons onto his students’ brains.

He says he comes from a family of musicians and that music helped him overcome difficulties with reading comprehension as a child.

“So, I would make songs to kind of help me to remember things. I just still do it in class now,” he told CBS News.

A song Brown teaches his doctor of pharmacy students relates to a disease that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, affects more than one in 10 Americans.

“I was teaching their class about diabetes. I was going over Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, and I was telling them about a hormone that allows the body to secrete insulin and to do a few other things,” he said.

It’s a disease that has affected Brown’s family.

“My mother's name is Jacqueline Williams Brown, and my mom lived with Type 2 diabetes,” he said. “She was the first teacher that I had for Type 2 diabetes along with her mother, my grandmother. In this story, for me, I'm not just the pharmacist, I'm the son. I'm a caregiver. I'm someone who has lived the life of knowing how to help someone in my family with Type 2 diabetes.”

Through his medical advocacy, music, and teaching the next generation of pharmacists, Brown is spreading an important message about Type 2 diabetes.

“The more that we educate our communities, then the better we can conquer and defeat Type 2 diabetes,” he said.

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