It is indisputable that patients of color—irrespective of social class—receive inferior care in our country, whether it be the type of surgery they are offered, the amount of pain medications they are given, or how they are treated when victims of trauma. No more poignant example exists than the recent death from COVID-19 of Dr Susan Moore, a black doctor whose symptoms were discounted by a white doctor in Indiana.
Elsewhere in the globe, billions of people lack access to basic medical and surgical care. Whether it be treatment of childhood diseases and congenital anomalies, surgery for life-threatening or debilitating trauma, or medications for HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria—where you are born and how many resources you have determine how healthy you will be.
Grapple with these issues as we hear from classmates who have dedicated their careers to alleviating the social injustices in medicine. Moderated by Marilyn Butler, MWButler@gmail.com
Health inequities and social justice
PART 1: In our own backyard
- Racial and ethnic health disparities and access to care in these United States.
- Distinguishing the lie of race, from the reality of racism, and how medical racism robs people and communities of years and lives.
- Introduction: Guy Fish (Internal Medicine) and Steven Clark (Bariatric Surgeon)
Suggested reading: Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present - Laura Riley (Chief of Ob/Gyn, NY- Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center)
- Tragedy of Maternal/Fetal deaths: a mirror on Health Access
- Dayna Bowen Matthew (Dean of George Washington University Law School), author of Just Medicine: A Cure for Inequality in American Health Care
- Anti-racism in practice – COVID/CDC vaccine guideline advising
PART 2: In the world beyond
- Health care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs): What is being done, and what can we learn?
- Lisa Hirschhorn (Infectious Disease Physician): Improving health care means building quality and equitable systems
- Marilyn Butler (Pediatric Surgeon): There is more to surgery than operating
- Paula Tavrow (Public Health Professor): A new model of care for women suffering from obstetric fistula
- Debbie Jacobs (Ophthalmologist): Low-cost eye care: Local resourcing, scaling up, and barriers that remain
- Houston “Hootie” Warren (Physician/Scientist): Why research is so important to improving care
- Andy Pugh (Senior VP for International Programs, Relief International): Health care needs more than doctors and nurses
PART 3: What can we learn? What can we do?
- Q & A / Discussion
- Solutions / Actions