Inequities across all facets of health care — from clinical research to patient outcomes — are not new.
What is new is that more Americans are thinking critically about racism, and several organizations are voicing their anti-racism stances.
“Conversations such as these have opened the window for real and actionable change. As physicians, we frequently see evidence of health inequities in practice, and people often cite race as the reason for the inequities experienced by people from disadvantaged communities — but really, racism is the source,” Frinny Polanco Walters, MD, fellow in the department of adolescent and young adult medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, told Healio. “Given the longstanding history of police brutality in the U.S., along with the recent killings of innocent Black people — including, but certainly not limited to, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Garner and Freddie Gray — and the resultant worldwide protests, the Black Lives Matter movement has gained a lot of attention as of late.”
