Eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health care: what is the role of academic medicine?

Full Abstract

Research has shown that minority Americans have poorer health outcomes (compared to whites) from preventable and treatable conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma, and cancer. In addition to racial and ethnic disparities in health, there is also evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in health care. The Institute of Medicine Report Unequal Treatment remains the preeminent study of the issue of racial and ethnic disparities in health care in the United States. Unequal Treatment provided a series of general and specific recommendations to address such disparities in health care, focusing on a broad set of stakeholders including academic medicine. Academic medicine has several important roles in society, including providing primary and specialty medical services, caring for the poor and uninsured, engaging in research, and educating health professionals. Academic medicine should also provide national leadership by identifying innovations and creating solutions to the challenges our health care system faces in its attempt to deliver high-quality care to all patients.Several of the recommendations of Unequal Treatment speak directly to the mission and roles of academic medicine. For instance, patient care can be improved by collecting and reporting data on patients' race/ethnicity; education can minimize disparities by integrating cross-cultural education into health professions training; and research can help improve health outcomes by better identifying sources of disparities and promising interventions. These recommendations have clear and direct implications for academic medicine. Academic medicine must make the elimination of health care disparities a critical part of its mission, and provide national leadership by identifying quality improvement innovations and creating disparities solutions.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Betancourt, Joseph R (JR);

Affiliation: Harvard Medical School, 50 Staniford St., Ste. 942, Boston, MA 02114, USA. jbetancourt(-atsign-)partners.org

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges (Acad Med), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Sep; vol 81 (issue 9) : pp 788-92

Dates: Created 2006/08/28; Completed 2006/11/08; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 16936481, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Academic Medical Centers - organization & administration
Continental Population Groups
Cultural Diversity
Delivery of Health Care
Ethnic Groups
Evidence-Based Medicine
Health Planning Guidelines
Health Services Accessibility
Humans
Leadership

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.