Black Lives Matter

Violence is a health issue. Inequality is a health issue. Racism is a health issue. It is past time for all of us to examine and challenge the systemic injustices against POC in America. We commit to learning more, sharing more, and doing more to promote justice and equality with a continued focus on health. We encourage you to read, watch, learn, share, contribute, and act with us.

Read:

• How Structural Racism Affects Healthcare: Only by first acknowledging the effects can we work toward transformative changes | Niran S. Al-Agba, MD

  • “Structural racism is the biased societal approach to housing, education, employment, healthcare, and criminal justice…Today, a black woman is 22% more likely to die from heart disease than a white woman. A black woman is 71% more likely to die from cervical cancer than a white woman. A black woman is 243% more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes than a white woman.

• What Algorithms Tell Us About Structural Racism in Health Care | Bonnie Castillo, Executive Director of National Nurses United

  • As one report put it, “only 18% of the patients identified by the algorithm as needing more care were black, compared to about 82% of white patients. If the algorithm were to reflect the true proportion of the sickest black and white patients, those figures should have been about 46% and 53%, respectively.”

• Why Black Lives Matter Ought to Matter to Medical Students: A Familiar Message Revisited | Suhas Gondi

  • “It concluded that even after controlling for insurance status, income, age and severity of conditions, minorities receive a different level of care than white patients. They were less likely to be prescribed appropriate cardiac medications, undergo bypass surgery or receive kidney dialysis and more likely to undergo “less-desirable procedures” such as a lower limb amputation due to complications from diabetes.”

• 2015 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report | The 2015 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report reported that black patients received worse care than whites for about 40 percent of quality measures

• The Intersection of Black Lives Matter and Public Health: Moving from Conversation to Action in Addressing Health Disparities | Mehroz Baig; San Francisco Department of Public Health

• Disparities in Health and Health Care: Five Key Questions and Answers | Kaiser Family Foundation

• AAFP Sees Strong Maternal Health Potential in 'Momnibus' Act

WATCH:

• Prioritizing Equity: The Root Cause Webinar | American Medical Association

  • “Hear diverse perspectives on health equity, from trailblazers to current advocates, whose work is driven by the mission to address the root causes of health inequity and the social determinants of health.”

• The Intersection of Black Lives Matter and Public Health | San Francisco Department of Health

  • “Public health professionals have seen disparities in health outcomes along racial and ethnic lines for decades. Data point to disparities in life expectancy, rates of new HIV diagnoses, rates of viral suppression for those who are HIV positive, rates of emergency room visits due to asthma or heart disease, among others. With the Black Lives Matter movement elevating the discussion on disparities to a national dialogue, we asked public health professionals how they can use that momentum to inform their work. Take a listen to public health and social justice professionals from the Bay Area talk about how different sectors such as the economy, transportation, housing, and food can work together and use the national conversation on disparities to address health outcomes.”

• When the Bough Breaks | Ep. 2 | Unnatural Causes, Is Inequality Making Us Sick?

  • “The number of infants who die before their first birthday is much higher in the U.S. than in other countries. And for African Americans the rate is nearly twice as high as for white Americans. Even well-educated Black women have birth outcomes worse than white women who haven't finished high school. Why?”

ACT:

• Join the monthly Racial Health Equity Journal Club to discuss racism and health

• Donate to Racial Health Equality - “Donations to the Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health will be used to support programming, research, and other initiatives designed to disseminate scholarship on the impact of racism on health.”

• White Coats For Black Lives who’s mission is eliminating racial bias in the practice of medicine and recognizing racism as a threat to the health and well-being of people of color - sign up for their newsletter.

• Donate to the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) - “AAPF is dedicated to advancing and expanding racial justice, gender equality, and the indivisibility of all human rights, both in the U.S. and internationally.”