If you're sick, possibly dying, the last thing you should worry about is racism. But a new study shows that a doctor's racial bias could be expressed in his or her body language. For instance, doctors would "stand right at the [white] patient's bedside and touch them in a sympathetic manner." Standoffish behavior from doctors only makes them look disengaged and unsympathetic -- how can we expect patients to trust them? On its own, this is a public health crisis. It might prevent patients from getting care sooner or ever getting care at all.
Unfortunately, this is only a reflection of the racial bias in the American health care system where:
-- Blacks and Latinos "experience 30 to 40 percent poorer health outcomes than white Americans"
-- Blacks, Latinos and the poor are afflicted with higher rates of illness
-- Blacks, Latinos and the poor live shorter lives
-- This disparity in the system costs the U.S. $60 billion in lost productivity every year
This is every American citizen's problem.
It's going to take a lot to rid the medical system of racial bias, but we have to start somewhere. As the faces of the health care system, doctors have the responsibility to treat every patient equally. Sign and share this petition if you want better trained physicians, so we can start to solve this public health and human crisis.
