Chris C.’s Post

🔶Less than 5% of medical images show dark skin 🔶Only 8% of medical illustrators identify as people of color 🔶Every 10% increase in country-level black primary care provider representation across the US was associated with a 31-day higher life expectance among black individuals These stats highlight the role diversity, equity, and inclusion play in patient outcomes. It’s no longer something we can talk about. It’s something we need to act on so that the way we think about medical education and healthcare as a whole is representative of all the populations being treated. Illustrate Change is leading the charge in demonstrating how better representation can lead to better patient outcomes. You can read more about their work here. https://lnkd.in/dkm6NZRY 

I know that many do not have a subscription to the National Review so below is the text of my opinion piece which was published on April 17 to commemorate the second anniversary of my lifetime ban by the leaders of the American College of Surgeons for protesting their embrace of critical race theory and antiracism in the guise of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Please read, share, and sign my petition for reinstatement of my rightful privileges. We have to stop this insanity of cancelling and deplatforming everyone who voices an opinion contrary to whatever agenda or ideology is being promoted. The ACS has doubled down in pushing DEI even as this is being increasingly repudiated everywhere it has been installed and proven to be a failure. The recently published ACS DEI Toolkit even promotes the odious concept of racial concordance, which posits that patients will have better outcomes if their surgeon is of the same race. This is nothing more than a return to explicit racism and segregation. It is a slap in the face to every surgeon who daily strives to provide every patient with the best possible care regardless of the their race, ethnicity, gender, class, or station in life. It is the antithesis of Hippocratic medicine. DEI and its stepchild, gender-affirming care for minors will some day be seen as one of the most unscientific and horrendous failures of medicine, on par with the Tuskegee experiments and frontal lobotomies.

The fascination with diversity is insane in medicine. No other field does this nonstop. We assume it’s somehow better and make unfounded statements it’s true. If it’s true that black doctors provide better outcomes for black patients, the in our aging population, older doctors will provide better outcomes. Where’s the data, lacking, lacking but statements repeated. Example, read where black doctors added 30 days to life expectancy of black patients. Really??? That’s a 0.1% change. How significant? So a new drug lowers BP by 0.1% decreasing BP from 175 to 174.8. How many want to jump on that bandwagon. Medicine should seek out the best of the best “regardless” of ……. Whatever you want to fill in the blank, including race.

Catalyzed by my own personal experience, Empowerment Beyond Scars exists to transform pain into power. It’s about granting other survivors the opportunity to rewrite their narratives, revealing the beauty and strength that have always resided within, waiting to be reclaimed. Our mission is to pioneer a world where scars, both seen and unseen, become narratives of strength and resilience, powered by the artistry of medical aesthetics. Together, we're rewriting the stories of resilience, one scar at a time: https://lnkd.in/eWcnPFKs

'Move from a race based medical system to a race conscious based system' Transitioning from a race-based medical framework to a race-conscious approach represents a significant paradigm shift. This reframing enables us to critically examine our systems and policies, directing our focus toward the necessary institutional changes required to ensure equitable treatment for all individuals. Our NHS currently operates on a medical model that is not fit for purpose for everyone. It is essential to scrutinise these practices, policies and reflect on the evidence that underpins them. Questioning established structures and conducting audits to assess their relevance in contemporary society is not only acceptable but vital for progress. Joel Bervell explains this perfectly below. #NHS #leadersforchange #racialbiasinmedicine

A few months ago, I was a part of a short video series with the Doris Duke Foundation called “When Racial Bias Hides in Plain Sight.” In it, we unpack the impact of race in clinical equations through the perspectives of students, researchers, and patients. To me, one of the most salient examples is the GFR equation. In this clip, I talk about the significance of the GFR equation as well as the importance of moving from a race-based medical system to a race-conscious medical system. #joelbervell #racialbiasinmedicine #chronickidneydisease #gfrequation #healthcareonlinkedin

Why proper assessment and statistics are important

"I want us to move from a race-based medical system to a race-conscious medical system. What that means is we don't use race as a way to treat people differently, but we understand how race leads people to be treated differently by the systems and policies that exist." "Today and tomorrow's research scientists aren't just scientists anymore.. it's going to take a new type of physician to understand how social issues and medical issues come together in order to form a better healthcare system." Very informative. The research industry is moving towards paying more attention to diversity in clinical trial recruitment. How can we guard against drawing race-based conclusions from this data and support a race-conscious mindset? I think the key is in focusing on outcomes data, particularly clinical endpoints and quality of life measures rather than surrogate biomarkers. This type of data is harder to collect, but is important to achieve health equity.

What is happening today in medical school education and training ensures distrust among physician and patient for decades to come. We are all going to be patients one day. Shouldn't we expect that the physician caring for us is competent and won't treat us differently simply based on our immutable characteristics? Shouldn't medical ethics in caring for human life eclipse skin color? ... "Racial concordance encourages medical schools to lower standards in the name of increasing diversity, which leads to lower-quality physicians providing worse-quality health care...." https://lnkd.in/gZbxrizp

Today was the last day of the American Academy of Audiology (AAA) annual convention in Atlanta, Georgia. I attended another outstanding talk today that was presented by Dr. Marc Fagelson. His talk was titled, "Tinnitus and the Medical Humanities." It was a very engaging talk that gave a whole new perspective to counseling for tinnitus. It was definitely a "thinking outside of the box" approach to tinnitus treatment. Dr. Fagelson cited the article, "Medical Humanities and Counseling--Lifeworld of Tinnitus" (Pryce & Shaw, 2019). My takeaway was to listen carefully to what our patients have to say, and engage with them on any level ("humanities" aspects) that resonates with them. We want to understand their "experience" of tinnitus and to respond accordingly with the main objective to "demystify" their tinnitus. Dr. Fagelson is getting excellent results using this approach.