LETTER
Medicalization of Race
Donna L. Parker, MD
15 April 1997 | Volume 126 Issue 8 | Page 669
TO THE EDITOR:
In this era of increasing diversity of patient populations, with non-European immigrants and multicultural marriages, it is important that we revisit the idea of including a subjective racial descriptor in our medical histories. I am in full agreement with Dr. Witzig [1] that our notions of race are artificial, antiquated, and possibly prejudicial. We are not that far removed from an era when treatment was denied or carried out in a separate wing of the hospital depending on the race assigned to the patient. The climate has improved for people of color, but current literature suggests that differences in care may still be an issue [2].
In teaching a course on history taking to first-year medical students, I was impressed by the fact that most of them did not mention the race of the patient in their initial write-up. This suggests to me that they have yet to become indoctrinated with the "usual" way of presenting a patient to others and that this is the time when we should be helping them to form their ideas about culture and ethnicity as they relate to patient care. By eliminating this observer-dependent description of race and expanding the family and social histories to include more information about the patient's environment and background, we can only create more enlightened physicians who will provide better care to patients.
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Author and Article Information
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University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201
1. Witzig R. The medicalization of race: scientific legitimization of a flawed social construct. Ann Intern Med. 1996; 125:675-9.
2. Phillips RS, Hamel MB, Teno JM, Bellamy P, Broste SK, Califf RM, et al. Race, resource use, and survival in seriously ill hospitalized adults. J Gen Intern Med. 1996; 11:387-95.
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