{"id":18762,"date":"2020-06-25T13:34:45","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T18:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/?p=18762"},"modified":"2026-02-05T04:13:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T09:13:43","slug":"how-to-make-healthcare-anti-racist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/advice\/how-to-make-healthcare-anti-racist\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Healthcare Anti-Racist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the neonatologist on call in the NICU, I go to meet the mother of a new preterm infant who\u2019s struggling to survive on mechanical ventilation. I know the specifics of the case played a role in the infant being born at just 24 weeks old. Yet, while standing at the patient\u2019s bedside, I cannot help but feel a deep sadness as I ponder the broader societal risk factors for this Black mother-infant pair. Due largely to the cumulative effects of structural racism, Black women deliver preterm more frequently than other women, and Black infants have more than twice the infant mortality rate of other racial groups. While these statistics might seem abstract to some, the sick, tiny infant in the isolette in front of me makes them all too salient.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr class=\"squiggle\" \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Between racial disparities in COVID-19 outcomes and the national awakening to the impact of police brutality in the Black community, the concept of anti-racism is quickly gaining traction<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in areas where it&#8217;s been needed all along. Historian and race scholar Ibram X. Kendi\u2019s book <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How to be an Anti-Racist <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is one of several books about racism currently topping bestseller lists. One of Kendi\u2019s major premises is that people and institutions are either racist or anti-racist; there is no third option. In medicine, we have relied heavily on living in this space of a debunked \u201cthird option.\u201d We\u2019ve clung to the idea that a doctor\u2019s job is to fight disease with a cool head and steady hands, not to fight systemic discrimination with a fiery activist spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But racism is woven into the fabric of every facet of society, including medicine, and it<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">self-perpetuates. Either the medical field works to become actively anti-racist, or we stay complicit and make it clear we\u2019ve chosen the <em>other<\/em> option.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our profession calls on us to \u201cdo no harm,\u201d but it also sits in a place of inaction while societal abuse is being perpetrated.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My goal as a physician is to bring this national discussion about anti-racism into medical training and medical care. This is no small task. Like much of America, medicine resides in a paradox of knowing yet not acknowledging the racism Black Americans face. There is awareness among medical professionals that, on average, Black families live in more impoverished neighborhoods and are more likely to have public insurance. Through inaction and lack of acknowledgement, the medical field seems to accept the extreme disadvantage and generational trauma that Black Americans have endured throughout history \u2014 and which they continue to endure because of white supremacist ideology and racist American structures.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Owning up to complicity is difficult.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have an abundance of research on racial disparities in health and healthcare.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Studies tell us over and over that Black Americans disproportionately suffer chronic diseases that shorten life spans. Studies reveal that medical trainees believe Black people <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamc.org\/news-insights\/how-we-fail-black-patients-pain\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">have thicker skin and are less sensitive to pain<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; studies thoroughly document the ways in which Black patients\u2019 pain is misdiagnosed, mistreated and outright ignored.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And yet <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/vitalsigns\/aahealth\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">there have been minimal improvements<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> since the 1990s in the disparities that affect the health of Black Americans. Our profession calls on us to \u201cdo no harm,\u201d but it also sits in a place of inaction while societal abuse is being perpetrated. Inaction allows racial bias to seep into the exam room and undermine the care that Black patients receive. Inaction does harm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SurgeryRedesign.com recently published <a href=\"https:\/\/umich.app.box.com\/s\/d1zl3r2dlso7gs76wjfybv9z52m397ho\">a graphic<\/a> that shows the three main stages of becoming anti-racist: the fear zone, the learning zone and the growth zone. In my estimation, healthcare is in the late-fear, early-learning zone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18766 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BecomingAntiRacist-1-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thepapergown.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BecomingAntiRacist-1-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/thepapergown.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BecomingAntiRacist-1-674x672.png 674w, https:\/\/thepapergown.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BecomingAntiRacist-1-337x336.png 337w, https:\/\/thepapergown.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BecomingAntiRacist-1-169x168.png 169w, https:\/\/thepapergown.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BecomingAntiRacist-1-195x195.png 195w, https:\/\/thepapergown.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BecomingAntiRacist-1-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most medical journals&#8217; discussions of racial health inequities minimize racism as the source. Instead, poor health in minoritized communities is falsely attributed to \u201cgenetics\u201d or \u201csocioeconomic status.\u201d Most people in medicine are still striving to keep conversations about race comfortable, and cannot fully acknowledge their privilege in the system. Most people cannot clearly identify the knowledge gaps that need to be filled to improve care. What would it take to move medicine into the growth zone?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To start, we need a revolution in how we train students in medicine, nursing and other health professions. We need to move beyond familiar implicit bias lectures and introduce a new curriculum, centered around a deep understanding of critical race theory, structural inequities, historical racism and violence, and modern-day manifestations of racism in healthcare. This will likely mean<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bringing new types of scholars into the walls of medical schools, including sociologists, anthropologists and other non-physician teachers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A wonderful example of this new curriculum in practice is at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, which has partnered with UC Berkeley to develop the Program in Medical Education for the Urban Underserved, known as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/meded.ucsf.edu\/prime-us-program\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PRIME<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. As part of this program, medical students learn physiology and disease through the lens of historical racial inequities. PRIME graduates a new type of physician with an entirely different understanding of disease etiology and cures. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, instead of attributing higher rates of severe hypertension among Black patients to genetics, a PRIME graduate would be more likely to assess and address underlying societal reasons for such outcomes, including the chronic stress of racism, living in food deserts without access to nutritious food, and low access to neighborhood green spaces for exercise.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At every level, the system is designed to exclude minoritized students from entering and succeeding in medicine.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second, physicians and other healthcare workers must accept that we cannot improve minority health by practicing medicine in silos. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/healthcare-trends\/why-more-doctors-are-asking-patients-where-they-buy-groceries\/\">Social determinants of health<\/a>, or SDOH, have a massive effect on disease incidence and severity, as well as death. The medical community as a whole can no longer sit and wait for other factions of society to advocate for national policy change, local policy change and improved standards of living for minoritized Americans. This includes advocating for improved access to healthcare (universal health insurance), improved education and employment opportunities (narrowing the racial wealth gap), and improved housing and access to clean air and water. The health impact of racial segregation has been well studied, and it\u2019s widely known that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bluezones.com\/2020\/02\/zip-code-effect-your-neighborhood-determines-your-lifespan\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ZIP code is predictive of life span<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in many cities in the US. If physicians are for saving lives, then we must address these SDOH with the same vigor with which we prescribe investigational drugs or encourage enrollment in the latest clinical trial.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Third, local change can be very powerful, and it can change the lives of patients. Each clinic and hospital can begin to measure the outcomes of their patients, including hospitalizations, disease severity and deaths, through the lens of anti-racism. This entails breaking down data by racial demographics and other important variables, and comparing health outcomes by race, gender and age. Doing this will likely expose disparities and health inequity, by which point the health system must be ready to create and implement programs to reduce these disparities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <em>New England Journal of Medicine<\/em><\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMp2002502?query=TOC#.XuGu1VQzfCM.twitter\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recently<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">highlighted<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> such an effort: In 2017, Boston\u2019s Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital created its Health Equity Committee and started measuring health outcomes by race. The committee explored disparities through the lens of bias and structural racism, instead of treating \u201crace\u201d as the risk factor. It found that Black patients with heart failure were more commonly admitted to the general medical team and not the cardiology medical team. At that point, <\/span>the committee<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> launched two projects to decrease this disparity and make sure all patients received the same excellent care.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fourth, the medical workforce must be desegregated. As<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dr. Rhea Boyd, a pediatrician and public health advocate, wrote in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Lancet<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in her powerful essay \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140-6736(19)31353-4\/fulltext\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Case for Desegregation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just as Black teachers were not simply \u201cunderrepresented\u201d in Ruby Bridges\u2019 elementary school, nonwhite professionals are not simply \u201cunderrepresented\u201d in the US healthcare industry. They are largely excluded, and when included, it is within systems that disadvantage and discriminate against nonwhites<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Starting at a young age, minorities, specifically Black Americans, are effectively excluded from entering the medical profession at multiple levels. Minoritized children have less access to high quality early education <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/27\/education\/school-districts-funding-white-minorities.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">because of disparities in school funding<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. As a result, they\u2019re less competitive for the Ivy league and other upper-echelon colleges, the feeders of most US medical schools. Without family wealth, many minoritized students cannot afford to attend medical school. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamc.org\/system\/files\/reports\/1\/october2018anupdatedlookattheeconomicdiversityofu.s.medicalstud.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have data<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to show that the vast majority of medical students in this country are from the highest income brackets, which are almost exclusively white. In this way, the pool of physicians in no way matches the American population.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have the anti-racism tools needed to correct these problems.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In medical school, Black and minority students are evaluated <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/10401334.2019.1597724\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">less favorably by supervisors<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and data shows that important markers of achievement, like admission to the medical honors society <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> letters of recommendation, are biased in favor of white students. At every level, the system is designed to exclude minoritized students from entering and succeeding in medicine. To be anti-racist, medicine must acknowledge and change these barriers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are multiple ways in which the current medical system is not supporting minoritized medical students and physicians, and there are multiple ways that the system is failing minoritized patients. We have the anti-racism tools needed to correct these problems. The question remains: Does the medical field have the bravery and the will to implement anti-racist practices to measurably improve the system? We can step up or we can stay complicit. There\u2019s no third option.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>This article has been updated.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h1 class=\"p2\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"s1\">Ready to book a doctor&#8217;s appointment? Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/\"><span class=\"s2\">Zocdoc.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My goal as a physician is to bring the national discussion about anti-racism into medicine. This is no small task.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":18763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[156,93,155],"class_list":["post-18762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice","tag-op-ed","tag-public-health","tag-race","reviewer-dr-nassim-assefi","specialist_by_city-find-primary-care-physicians-near-you"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Make Healthcare Anti-Racist - Advice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My goal as a physician is to bring the national discussion about anti-racism into medicine. 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