In the early 1940s, Bernard Lown, MD, was temporarily expelled from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine after it was discovered that, in an act of protest, he had purposely altered blood-bottle labels that indicated the race of the blood donor from whom it was drawn.
After a threatened protest, Dr. Lown—the inventor of the defibrillator—was reinstated but removed from his job at the blood bank, which continued to segregate its supply according to the race of the donor.
Some 80 years after Dr. Lown’s encounter with that baseless form of medical racism, the organization that bears his name—the Lown Institute—has released data showing that many of the nation’s urban hospital markets are highly segregated.
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This Viewpoint outlines policy changes to make academic promotions more equitable for women physicians.
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Most low-income workers still want the shot, though.
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The idea is that permanent, stable housing is a key to good health
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We must train providers to understand their unique needs in order to deliver affirming, compassionate treatment
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If the most important measure of society is the well‐being of its populace, then dismantling the direct linkage between one's health and race should be our most urgent priority.
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The case of Laura Baker, a brain cancer patient who was unable to get a CT scan because of her size, highlights the health care challenges very heavy people face.
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New research on racial disparities in Covid-19 mortality show how hospital segregation harms Black patients.
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In addition to killing 600,000 in the United States and afflicting an estimated 3.4 million or more with persistent symptoms, the pandemic threatens the health of vulnerable people devastated by the loss of jobs, homes and opportunities for the future.
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By studying counties labeled "hot spots of death," researchers hope to better identify reasons for the rise in early-onset colorectal cancer.
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A new report finds bias is pervasive in algorithms used by hospitals and insurers. It also offers a playbook on how to fix those flaws.
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This Viewpoint discusses differences in states’ Medicaid programs and the associated geographic and sociodemographic inequalities in children’s health and health care.
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What the study found was that major U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, have some of the most racially segregated hospitals in the country. And many metropolitan areas have a high proportion of hospitals at each end of the inclusivity rankings (most inclusive versus least inclusive).
“Typically what we see is that some ZIP codes contribute a lot more to a hospital or other ZIP codes inside that perimeter contribute far fewer,” said Saini. “Some ZIP codes contribute none at all.”
One of the goals of the Lown Institute’s Hospital Index is to invite stakeholders to create a health care system that doesn’t look so segregated, Saini said, “where people go where they go because they made a choice. [Where] it’s not just about their income or their insurance or the color of their skin or the neighborhood they live in. And we’re a long way from that.”
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This cross-sectional study examines the number and location of vaccination sites across 18 districts with varying racial and ethnic demographic characteristics in Brooklyn, New York.
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Value-based payment models may exacerbate racial health disparities. To change this, we need to make equity a part of value -- and reward hospitals for advancing equity.
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The burden of COVID-19 in the United States has fallen disproportionately on Black and Hispanic/Latino individuals.
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The ideas, research, and actions from across Harvard University aimed at creating equitable opportunities for success and prosperity.
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After matriculating into medical school in the fall of 2013, I was drowning. It seemed that who I was—a Black, gay man—could not exist within the medical system.
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