Newswise — Many experts today believe patients' race profoundly affects how the healthcare system treats them and that black patients receive inferior care to white patients. While some argue that doctors are simply racially-biased, research indicates that other factors correlated with race have the most significant impacts on how patients are treated. These findings will be presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 38th Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
According to Dr. Sally Satel, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, most medical care is delivered locally and blacks are overrepresented in regions of the United States that are burdened with poorer health facilities. Thus, disparities are destined to be partially a function of residence.
Furthermore, many individuals believe that black patients are best served by black doctors; yet, studies show that white and black patients, on average, do not see the same population of physicians, which proves the idea of preferential treatment by individual doctors to be inaccurate. These studies also show that a higher proportion of the doctors that black patients tend to see may not provide optimal care.
"Race-related differences in health status and health care are real, but these problems are not due to bias on the part of physicians, as has been repeatedly alleged. Nor does it make sense to charge the health care system itself with 'bias,'" Dr. Satel said. "Thus, a quality improvement, not a civil rights approach, will be most constructive in improving health of minorities."
Dr. Satel will present her controversial lecture "Healthcare Disparity?" as presenter of this year's Christopher R. Blagg Endowed Lectureship in Renal Disease and Public Policy during the Public Policy Forum, Race, Gender and Economic Status: Do They Account for Disparities in Health Care Delivery? on Friday, November 11 at 1:30 pm in Room 112 of the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
The ASN is a not-for-profit organization of 9,000 physicians and scientists dedicated to the study of nephrology and committed to providing a forum for the promulgation of information regarding the latest research and clinical findings on kidney diseases. ASN's Renal Week 2005, the largest nephrology meeting of its kind, will provide a forum for more than 12,000 nephrologists to discuss the latest findings in renal research and engage in educational sessions relating advances in the care of patients with kidney and related disorders from November 8-13 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA.
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