Leadership | 11.23.20
What Doctors Aren’t Always Taught: How to Spot Racism in Healthcare
by Kaiser Health News
Kaiser Health News (11/17/20) Lawrence, Elizabeth
A growing number of Black medical students are campaigning for schools to eliminate the use of race as a diagnostic tool and recognize how systemic racism harms patients. For many years, medical students were taught that genetic differences among the races had an effect on health. Recent studies, though, have found race does not reliably reflect that. The National Human Genome Research Institute notes very little genetic variation among races. Because of this, more physicians are embracing the idea that race is not an intrinsic biological difference but instead a social construct. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the official accrediting body for medical schools in the United States and Canada, is calling on faculty to teach students to recognize bias "in themselves, in others, and in the healthcare delivery process." Currently, the LCME does not require accredited institutions to teach about systemic racism in medicine.
Read the full story from Kaiser Health News.