Bronx Health REACH is a National Center of Excellence in the Elimination of Disparities and a community-based coalition working to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health care.
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The CNN article doesn't say what "race" the MDs were in the Harvard study. Were they Black? White? Purple? Yellow? Red? Pink? If you're charging racism it generally implies that a person of race X is treating a person of race Y differently based on skin color.
However, if Pink doctor treats people of Pink descent the same as a Blue doctor, then the charge of racism disappears. It's also difficult to say because the background of a medical doctor can be so diverse, no two people will be diagnosed in the same way.
In a study, how do you account for the doctor-patient relationship in making treatment decisions? A physician familiar with someone's case is going to treat that person differently than someone who comes in off of the street (yet another argument against the fee-for-service model) - that much seems obvious.
To be sure, stereotyping happens. It is only natural - it's how our brains make sense of the world around us. But we also have to take into account the tendency for certain people to attribute different treatment automatically to race, gender, class, etc. The individual proclivity to come to such a conclusion undoubtedly has to do with their upbringing, as well. For example, treatment based on race is probably the last thing on my mind in an interaction.
I'm pretty skeptical about grand conclusions on human interaction being made from studies about these because there are so many variables. In conclusion, the lesson to be taken away should be: always get a second opinion, especially when you're dealing with major medical decisions.
The CNN article doesn't say what "race" the MDs were in the Harvard study. Were they Black? White? Purple? Yellow? Red? Pink? If you're charging racism it generally implies that a person of race X is treating a person of race Y differently based on skin color.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if Pink doctor treats people of Pink descent the same as a Blue doctor, then the charge of racism disappears. It's also difficult to say because the background of a medical doctor can be so diverse, no two people will be diagnosed in the same way.
In a study, how do you account for the doctor-patient relationship in making treatment decisions? A physician familiar with someone's case is going to treat that person differently than someone who comes in off of the street (yet another argument against the fee-for-service model) - that much seems obvious.
To be sure, stereotyping happens. It is only natural - it's how our brains make sense of the world around us. But we also have to take into account the tendency for certain people to attribute different treatment automatically to race, gender, class, etc. The individual proclivity to come to such a conclusion undoubtedly has to do with their upbringing, as well. For example, treatment based on race is probably the last thing on my mind in an interaction.
I'm pretty skeptical about grand conclusions on human interaction being made from studies about these because there are so many variables. In conclusion, the lesson to be taken away should be: always get a second opinion, especially when you're dealing with major medical decisions.