Breaking Links in the Chain of Racial Disparities for COVID-19
The burden of COVID-19 in the United States has fallen disproportionately on Black and Hispanic/Latino individuals. More
Podcast: Upward Immobility with Mary T Bassett and Nancy Krieger
The ideas, research, and actions from across Harvard University aimed at creating equitable opportunities for success and prosperity. More
‘As a Black, Gay Physician, I’ve Survived In America By Embracing My Anger’
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. More
New AMA policy opposes “excited delirium” diagnosis
A policy adopted by physicians, residents, and medical students at the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Special Meeting of its House of Delegates (HOD) opposes “excited delirium” as a medical diagnosis and warns against the use of certain pharmacological interventions solely for a law enforcement purpose without a legitimate medical reason. More
Race and health care collide in revealing American Medical Association controversy
The AMA's new push to grapple with health equity highlights a growing consciousness. And it's complicated. More
Time has arrived for Atlanta leaders to eliminate systemic racism, healthcare disparities
In 2021, the Lown Institute, an independent think tank, released a ranking system for U.S. hospitals’ on the degree to which they are adequately caring for the lower income and patients of color. Sadly, only two Atlanta metro area hospitals ranked in the top 100 for racial inclusivity, Grady Memorial Hospital and Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center and Emory University Hospital Midtown. This is likely a function of their location in downtown Atlanta rather than an actual strategy to address racial inclusivity and health equity. More
Kidney Experts Say It’s Time to Remove Race From Medical Algorithms. Doing So Is Complicated.
When estimating how well a patient’s kidneys are working, doctors frequently turn to an equation that depends on a question: Is the patient Black? More
With Roots in Civil Rights, Community Health Centers Push for Equity in the Pandemic
The covid-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the challenges facing rural health care, such as lack of broadband internet access and limited public transportation. For much of the vaccine rollout, those barriers have made it difficult for providers, like community health centers, to get shots into the arms of their patients. More
Racial equity is essential to hospital quality and some in Philly are falling short, new report says
“Hospitals reside in communities and are part of communities. Our view is they shouldn’t just serve a community, they should genuinely be part of a community,” said Vikas Saini, a physician and president of the Lown Institute. “A lot of the contemporary rankings that look at reputation or mortality, surgical complications, don’t capture that dimension. We set out to create a lens through which to view the hospital system that’s different.”
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A Tool Doctors Use Every Day Can Perpetuate Medical Racism
It’s called the “history of present illness,” or HPI, and it often includes a patient’s race—which is more likely to detract from care than to improve it More
Medicaid is a hassle for doctors. That’s hurting patients.
A new study challenges the conventional wisdom on why many doctors refuse to take Medicaid patients. More
Paid sick leave is a women’s health issue
The lack of paid sick leave for all disproportionately impacts women and exacerbates the disparities they already face in the workplace. More
Trying To Avoid Racist Health Care, Black Women Seek Out Black Obstetricians
Black women are three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. Some of them look to Black doctors for a sense of safety and connection, while medical schools add anti-racism training. More
‘The Black Butterfly’ Maps a Path to Racial Equity
In his new book, “The Black Butterfly,” public health scholar Lawrence Brown explores how urban housing and land use policies have been deployed as weapons of oppression against African Americans. More
The top 50 hospitals for racial inclusivity, according to the Lown Institute
The Lown Institute's report is yet another effort in a series of recent attempts to quantify and rank health care organizations' progress on achieving health equity. The authors delivered a bold and necessary message: Hospitals across the U.S. are racially segregated—that is to say, their Medicare patients' racial demographics don't match the demographics in their surrounding communities. These results might come as a shock to some—especially for those working at hospitals near the bottom of the list. But this data shouldn't be surprising. More
A new tool tracks health disparities in the U.S. — and highlights major data gaps
A new tool called the Health Equity Tracker collects, analyzes, and makes visible data on health disparities entrenched in U.S. medicine. More
Tackling the Misconception That Cystic Fibrosis Is a “White People’s Disease”
This Medical News feature examines racial and ethnic disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of cystic fibrosis. More
Shuttered hospitals, soaring Covid-19 deaths: Rural Black communities lose a lifeline in the century’s worst health crisis
“I hate that it closed,” Latasha Taylor said. “That doesn’t make a lot of sense. Why would you close a hospital in the middle of a pandemic?” More
VIDEO: Racial Inclusivity at US Hospitals
What's causing segregation in our health system, and what can we do about it? Watch the recording of the Lown Hospitals Index racial inclusivity launch to find out. More
Study: Inequity rampant among metro Atlanta hospitals
Two north Georgia hospitals fall among the 50 most segregated in U.S. metropolitan areas, and metro Atlanta tied for the largest number of such hospitals overall, according to a new study by the Lown Institute. More