Focus: Preventive Medicine: Race,Racism, and the Policy of 21st Century
Medicine |
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Authors: | Mia Keeys Joaquin Baca Aletha Maybank |
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Affiliation: | aCenter for Health Equity, American Medical Association, Washington, DC, USA;bCenter for Health Equity, American Medical Association, Chicago, IL, USA |
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Abstract: | This perspective describes three new policies passed at the November 2020 Special Meeting of the American Medical Association House of Delegates. These policies (1) denounce racism as a public health threat; (2) call for the elimination of race as a proxy for ancestry, genetics, and biology in medical education, research, and clinical practice; and (3) decry racial essentialism in medicine. We also explore the social and institutional context leading to the passage of these policies, which speak directly to the harmful legacy of racism in America, and its insidious impact on the healthcare system. |
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Keywords: | racism health equity policy medicine healthcare |
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