(BUILDING AN EQUITABLE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM CONTINUED)
It begins by recognizing that internal biases exist, even among doctors. A 2016 study of 222 medical students and residents found that half held at least one false belief about biological differences between Black and white patients. Those who endorsed these beliefs were more likely to rate a white patient’s pain as more acute than a Black patient’s pain. The antidote for such implicit bias requires difficult conversations at the institutional and personal level, some of which are already occurring. In 2019, Tufts University Health Plan implemented an Implicit Bias Day in 2019, an entire day dedicated to such conversations. A year later, the Harvard Medical School Class of 2020 incorporated the following pledge in their graduation oath: “I will recognize and dismantle forms of injustice that contribute to health inequities.”
From here, health care providers must work to ensure that their care networks reflect the patients they serve. One randomized, controlled trial of Black men in Oakland, California, found that men who received care from a Black doctor were more likely to engage in preventative health habits. The authors estimate this could close the mortality gap from cardiovascular disease by as much as 19% between white and Black men. Initiatives like Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois’ Physician Diversity Institute, for example, has sought to recruit more physicians from ethnic and racial minorities. The platform HUED is designed to match members with providers of color. Finally, we must bring people already doing the work of promoting health equity into the fold. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois has also teamed up with Mamatoto Village, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that, among other things, provides accessible prenatal support services to Black women. Women who participated in the program, for example, had children with higher birth weights than those who entered the program post-birth. We are confident that through innovative partnerships, a recognition of our own internal biases, and by working to promote diversity and inclusion, we won’t just build a more just world – we’ll build a healthier one as well.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion are Pillars of Science, Medicine and Public Health
Michael P. Burrows, PhD and John W. Colson, PhD, Aspire Capital Partners, LLC This past year has demonstrated the importance of collaboration and the shared responsibility every stakeholder has in ensuring equitable access to new medicines. We, at Aspire Capital, believe equitable access to vaccines and other therapies is a moral imperative. But we also wish to highlight that the foundation of public health is the diversity of people and ideas in the ecosystem. We believe diversity, equity and inclusion are critical at all levels in the biomedical institutions that train and employ science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) workers. As has been highlighted by the World Health Organization and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) , there remains tremendous inequity in our health care systems. Aspire Capital is proud to support the AAAS STEMM Equity Achievement Change (SEA Change) initiative and its mission to ensure that the full range of individual talent can be recruited and progress in STEMM fields. Diversity of people, ideas and experiences is critical to make the advances that underpin our ability to respond to global health crises like COVID-19. By their nature, these efforts must cross borders and artificial divisions of humanity so that we can all serve health care needs around the world. We ask that you consider supporting the SEA Change initiative at AAAS; you may learn more about how to do so at https://seachange.aaas.org/get-involved/supporters Universities, corporations and nonprofits all have a role to support equity, diversity and inclusion as key pillars for an effective public health system. It is in everyone’s best interest to focus resources on the health and wellbeing of our communities. We, at Aspire Capital, believe that those corporations and investors that have the long-term vision to see the value diversity brings to society will ultimately prosper.
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