A role for this country's medical schools in improving provided minority health care.

摘要

The United States spends more on health care for its citizens than any other country but provides a lower level of health care to its minorities.1 This discrimination is due to cultural biases and obscure nonmedical factors and has neither a basis nor a justification in medical science. These biases are believed to negatively influence the medical care provided to minority patients by some physicians. In addition, minority physicians are seriously underrepresented in this country's physician workforce, and population projections are predicting a marked increase in this country's minority populations in the coming years. An effective way to address this problem would be to involve the country's medical schools in the effort. All enrolled and future medical students should be taught in a formal, organized fashion about the reasons for these documented health care outcomes for minorities and why this situation should no longer be tolerated in this country.