Philly health systems and IBC are launching an effort against race-based medicine
The coalition aims to eliminate race as a factor in diagnostic tools and clinical guidelines.
Independence Blue Cross and 12 Philadelphia-area health systems, including Jefferson Health and Penn Medicine, on Thursday announced an effort to phase out race as a factor in clinical guidelines used to make treatment decisions.
“Race-based medicine has driven or contributed to the unacceptable health inequities that we see in the Philadelphia region and in other similarly situated communities across the country,” Independence CEO Gregory E. Deavens said in a news release.
Health providers have long considered patients’ racial and genetic background when making a diagnosis or developing a treatment plan, but research has found this often leads to missed indicators of illness.
For example, race is often considered when interpreting a test of how well lungs function. The underlying assumption is that Black and Asian patients have a smaller lung capacity compared to their white counterparts. As a result, the test has failed to detect lung disease in many Black and Asian patients, according to the news release from Independence.
“The health-care system has a legacy of treating race as a biological fact, rather than a social construct,” said Seun Ross, executive director of health equity at Independence.
The new Regional Coalition to Eliminate Race-Based Medicine is an outgrowth of Accelerate Health Equity, another coalition formed last year to tackle problems ranging from substance abuse, maternal and infant mortality, obesity/diabetes, and racism in medical settings to food access, housing, and community violence.
Members of the group announced Thursday, in addition to Independence, are: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Doylestown Health, Grand View Health, Jefferson Health, Main Line Health, Nemours Children’s Health, Penn Medicine, Redeemer Health, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, Temple Health, Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic, and Virtua Health.
The group will start by reviewing 15 tools used to diagnose disease or make treatment decisions. In addition to the lung test, they include an estimator of arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular disease risk, a calculator of breast cancer risk, and race-based anemia guidelines.