Drs. Sheryl Heron and Camara Phyllis Jones join us to discuss race and how it affects our practice in the ED.

Objectives:

• Debunk misunderstandings about the biological basis of race
• Analyze the relationship between race, social determinants of health, and health outcomes
• Discuss interventions that work to improve racial health disparities
• Predict how race may play a role in current policy and public health problems

Take-home points:

1. Race is a social, not biological, construction
2. Ancestry is poor marker genetics, and race a poor indicator of ancestry
3. Racial health disparities are driven by racial disparities in social determinants of health
4. Residential segregation is a large driver of disparities in SDH
5. Working deliberately to treat racial groups similarly on individual and population levels is necessary to ameliorating racial health disparities

Additional resources:

Allegories on Race and Racism. Camara Jones, TEDxEmory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNhcY6fTyBM

Cohan D, Racist Like Me — A Call to Self-Reflection and Action for White Physicians. N Engl J Med 2019; 380:805-807

Jones CP. Levels of Racism: A Theoretical Framework and a Gardener's Tale. Am J Public Health 2000; 90:1212-1215

Williams DR, American A, Wyatt R. Racial Bias in Health Care and Health Challenges and Opportunities. JAMA 2015;314(6):555–6

Washington, HA. Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. Harlem Moon an imprint of DoubleDay Publishing 2007

Guests:

Sheryl L. Heron, MD, MPH, FACEP Sheryl Heron is a Professor and Vice Chair of Administrative Affairs in Emergency Medicine and an Assistant Dean of Medical Education and Student Affairs at Emory University. While her accomplishments are too numerous to list, her 20 year career in emergency medicine, academia and public health, has led to national recognition as an expert on diversity and inclusion in medicine. Dr. Heron has also lectured and published extensively on diversity and inclusion in medicine. Most recently, she served as co-editor of the textbook, Diversity and Inclusion in Patient Care.

Camara Phyllis Jones, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D Jones is a former president of the American Public Health Association and Adjunct Professor at the Morehouse School of Medicine and Emory Rollins School of Public Health. She has also served as the Research Director on Social Determinants of Health and Equity in the Division of Adult and Community Health at the CDC. As a family physician and epidemiologist, Dr. Jones's work focuses on the impacts of racism on the health and well-being of the nation. From TED talks to National Symposia, Dr. Jones' allegorical pedagogy has elevated the national dialogue on race and health.

Contributors:

John Lewis

Dan Gingold

Sean Schnarr

Jenny Tsai