THIS TIME ON CODE WACK!
This time on Code WACK!
For the second episode in our two-part series on racism in medicine, in honor of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr, we’re asking the question: What is racially concordant care and how does it help save lives? What else can be done to reduce deadly disparities in medicine?
To find out, we spoke to Dr. Uché Blackstock. Blackstock, author of the New York Times best-selling book “Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine,” which is now available in paperback. She’s also the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, an organization that aims to dismantle racism in healthcare and narrow racial health inequities. Blackstock was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in Global Health and one of the Top 13 Innovators Shaping the Future of Health by Fortune Magazine.
Check out the Transcript and Show Notes for more!
SHOW NOTES
WE DISCUSS
Welcome back, Dr. Blackstock! What is racially concordant care? And why is it so important?
“I think ideally, we want to have a healthcare environment where anyone, regardless of their race, can get the best care possible.
“But what we see in the data though is that when there’s racially concordant care, when there’s care where the clinician and the patient are both Black, that actually there are better outcomes.
“So for example, we see that patients are more likely to, you know, follow their physician’s recommendations, they’re more likely to get vaccinated. There are just better outcomes overall. And so part of that is what’s happening on an interpersonal level between the clinician and the patient. And we see that for Black patients it makes a difference.” – Uché Blackstock, MDo
Why do you think racially concordant care is so important?
“… a study that came out the year before last in the Journal of American Medical Association found that even having one Black primary care physician in a U.S. county improved life expectancy for Black patients living in that county.
“… And so, you know, we don’t know where the confounding factors are or why that’s the case, but I think that’s so incredibly powerful. Unfortunately it was only a small number of U.S. counties that have Black primary care physicians ’cause there’s so few Black physicians.” – Uché Blackstock, MDo
What resources are there for Black people who wish to study medicine?
“… there are nonprofit organizations that offer scholarships … what we’re seeing unfortunately is that some of those programs are being targeted because of the [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] backlash.
“And you know, we’re seeing that even programs … where they provide stipends like in housing to black students and other students of color to come rotate there, to do rotations when they’re in college, to see if this is somewhere they would want to go to medical school … and those programs are being targeted.
“… I would love to see pipeline programs start earlier than just college. …
“… I would love to see even local, state and federal governments get involved in … really prioritizing, diversifying the workforce and what does that look like in terms of maybe, you know, loan repayment or just saying, you know, ‘you don’t have to pay back your loans.’ Or giving grants. Like there’s some medical schools now that are tuition free. I think they should be tuition free, grant free. Like folks should not even have to worry about that, especially if they’re coming from a lower socioeconomic status.” – Uché Blackstock, MD
Helpful Links
Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, Uché Blackstock, MD
Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, Institute of Medicine
The Association of Racial and Ethnic Concordance in Primary Care with Patient Satisfaction and Experience of Care, Journal of General Internal Medicine
Racial Concordance in Healthcare Can Improve Health Outcomes and Lower Costs, The Center for Health Affairs
Black Representation in the Primary Care Physician Workforce and Its Association With Population Life Expectancy and Mortality Rates in the US, JAMA Network Open
Physician-patient racial concordance and disparities in birthing mortality for newborns, Institutional Antiraciscm and Accountability Project
Med schools face a new obstacle in the push to train more Black doctors, NPR
Episode Transcript
Read the full episode transcript.
Biography: Uché Blackstock, MD
Dr. Uché Blackstock is a physician and thought leader on bias and racism
in health care.
She is the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, appears regularly on MSNBC and NBC News, and is a former associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the former faculty director for recruitment, retention, and inclusion in the Office of Diversity Affairs at NYU School of Medicine.
Dr. Blackstock received both her undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University, making her and her twin sister, Oni, the first Black mother-daughter legacies from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Blackstock currently lives in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, with her two school-age children.
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