Forum dissects race disparities in health care
Every day, about 223 African Americans die because of disparities in health care, a public health study shows.
That’s 83,000 preventable deaths of black Americans a year, according to the latest figures available from the 2005 U.S. Surgeon General study.
Black people have a higher mortality rate than white people at every stage of life, according to census data. Black people not only suffer physical effects of racism, but studies also reflect that they are less likely to be believed or listened to by physicians.
“We’ve got to train our doctors to be culturally competent and we’re not,” said Dr. Joycelyn Elders, who was the first black U.S. surgeon general, underscoring the need to deal with the health care disparities. She spoke Thursday night to a crowd of about 100 future health care professionals at the University of Houston.
“We want to design and develop a conscious, responsible health care system for all,” she said. “It needs to be patient-centered and purpose-driven,” Elders said.
Indeed, training the next generation of providers to bring equity to the system is the aim of the university’s new medical college .
Those values are part of the mission of the new Humana Integrated Health System Sciences Institute
at the University of Houston, the school’s director, Dr. LeChauncey Woodard said at Thursday’s event.
Discussions about existing disparities need to be ongoing, said Dr. David Buck, associate dean of the university's medical college.
The only way to create equity in health care is to make it more accessible for all Americans, said Elders, 86, who served as surgeon general from 1993 through 1994. Issues like the rising cost of prescription drugs, the growth of an aging population and a lack of preventative services will need to be fixed by the next generation of health care workers, she added.
Diagnosing illnesses sooner, better patient education, upgrades to struggling facilities and stronger primary care are the solutions Elders hopes to see in the future. Elders said she wants to see a cultural change in the medical field that addresses the fact that implicit biases exist.
“We need to figure out how to address minority patients and plan their treatment,” she said.
Elders brought up the example of U.S. tennis star Serena Williams, who almost died during childbirth because her doctors did not believe she was in pain.
“If Serena can’t make the world listen, who can as a black woman?” Elders asked. “She’s not the first one and sadly won’t be the last one.”
But because of Williams’ ordeal, Elders said more people are talking about the issue.
“Because of her experience, I think a lot more women will be listened to,” she said. “More people are speaking up and out.”
Sometimes, the fix is as simple as listening, the Arkansas native said.
“As doctors, we haven’t been listening to our patients,” said Elders. “We don’t know how they feel. Sometimes, we have to stop and listen to our patients and learn what it is that needs to be done.”