On March 15, the University of Utah’s School of Medicine held its annual Match Day — the ceremony that celebrates medical school students’ matching into a residency program through the National Resident Matching Program.
The matching process is recognized to be one of the greatest algorithms on the market, yet this program still underlines medicine’s biggest problem — racism and discrimination.
As medical technologies continue to develop, we must also begin to uncover the biased implications of robots in determining the future of healthcare professionals. It’s time for the medical field to take a deeper look at the racism and discrimination that it perpetuates.
Medicine’s Love Story with Racism
Just like other systemic structures in the U.S. — medicine enables and perpetuates the country’s racist legacy. From unethical research methodologies to racist depictions in textbooks, medicine has a long way to go.
In 1932, the U.S. Public Health Services began what is now known as the Tuskegee Experiment. The USPHS misled 600 African American men in Alabama into enrolling in a fake medical care program that would supposedly offer free syphilis treatment. Instead, the men were only given placebos such as aspirin and mineral supplements despite the newly established treatment for syphilis: penicillin.
The researchers continued to deceive the men by making them think they were given the proper treatment. As the men began to die from the lack of proper treatment, the researchers still refused to give them the proper treatment. By 1972, 28 participants had died from syphilis, 100 passed away from related complications and at least 59 had passed it on to their spouses and children. The participants of the experiment were not informed of the researchers’ true intentions until July 1972.
Similarly, according to Planned Parenthood, founder Margaret Sanger notoriously supported eugenic practices in which she intentionally singled out people of color for birth control injections to minimize populations of color.
Furthermore, the National Library of Medicine documented how healthcare professionals are exposed to racist underpinnings and teachings through trusted academic literature. This literature depicts stereotypical and racist practices and beliefs about skin tones and pain tolerance levels.
History has shown how the lack of ethical and diversity education has led to many avoidable tragedies. After the Tuskegee Experiment, the U.S. government enacted new guidelines and projects aimed at protecting human subjects. Tuskegee University’s National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care was established to combat unethical research procedures.
However, we need to acknowledge the lack of diverse inclusion in medicine is one of the biggest contributors to these practices. Continuing to ignore the issue will just lead to these practices terrorizing our communities.
Stop Excluding People of Color
Minorities in Medicine at the U strives to tackle these trends by encouraging and helping more minorities to pursue medical careers. The student-run and led organization aims to connect minority students to medical faculty and staff through a mentorship program.
Mena Zavala, a sophomore kinesiology major and Minorities in Medicine treasurer, said she remembered growing up without representation.
“Growing up as a Latina, I never saw any Latinx healthcare workers…I remember sometimes going with my grandpa to the hospital and having to translate for him,” Zavala said. “Seeing someone that looked like me probably would have made me want to connect with more healthcare workers.”
Research has shown that patients are more comfortable around doctors and providers who can relate to them and are more likely to seek care.
It is important to recruit and retain more providers who come from underrepresented and diverse backgrounds. It is absurd and unproductive to ignore race and differing experiences.
There needs to be more diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives focused on helping marginalized students gain the mentorship needed to pursue a medical career successfully.
DEI Benefits Everyone
One of the most common anti-DEI talking points is that DEI discriminates against people and it does more harm than good. However, with a little research, this sentiment isn’t rooted in fact.
According to the National Library of Medicine, studies have found that patients generally fare better when care is provided and conducted by a more diverse team. Having more perspectives leads providers to have less room for error and complications.
Medicine is not the place to discourage and fear diversity. Everyone should ensure that we are all getting high-quality healthcare regardless of who we are and where we come from.
Medicine Needs Diversity
“I think my [medical] journey at the U has been good because of the [Health Sciences] LEAP program that I’m in. The program is all about the inclusivity of POC … I think it’s going to be worth the journey because of the program,” Zavala said.
Programs like the LEAP program are great starting points in enabling POC and minorities to pursue medicine. However, there is more to be done.
It is imperative to support programs that aim to get people with different lived experiences into operating and research facilities.
