After showing a clip from an ABC Prime Time Live piece from February 1992, Curtis said that doctors should be trained to be culturally sensitive, and that there is a need for more black doctors.
"African-American doctors understand the cultural, social and economic issues in the black community, and that is essential for providing crucial services," he said.
Stephen Thomas, a professor at Emory University, said the lasting effects of the Tuskegee experiment are real. The effects are visible "when black folks come in late for necessary treatment or don't take medicine, even in the face of treatment that works," he said.
The Tuskegee experiment has become a metaphor and code word for the mistreatment of black people in the medical profession, Thomas said.
But to close the health care gap, black people must move beyond their own painful past and cooperate with health care officials, he said.