{"id":61794,"date":"2021-10-10T22:04:58","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T22:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=61794"},"modified":"2021-10-10T22:04:59","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T22:04:59","slug":"very-little-is-keeping-doctors-from-using-racist-health-formulas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=61794","title":{"rendered":"Very Little Is Keeping Doctors From Using Racist Health Formulas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Very Little Is Keeping Doctors From Using Racist Health Formulas<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Wired<\/a>
\n2021-10-08<\/p>\n

Jyoti Madhusoodanan<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nPhoto-Illustration: Sam Whitney; Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n

If nothing in medicine changes, it\u2019s just a matter of time before yet another race-based risk calculator<\/a> harms people of color.<\/em><\/p>\n

RECENTLY, TWO LEADING medical associations recommended ending a decades-old practice<\/a> among doctors: using race as one of the variables to estimate how well a person\u2019s kidneys filter waste out of their bodies. Before, clinicians would look at the levels of a certain chemical in blood, then multiply it by a factor of approximately 1.15 if their patient was Black. Using race to estimate kidney function contributes to delays in dialysis, kidney transplants, and other life-saving care for people of color, especially Black patients.<\/p>\n

To make the recent decision, 14 experts spent approximately a year evaluating dozens of alternative options, interviewing patients, and weighing the impact of keeping race in the equation. Their final recommendation ensures the corrected kidney equation is equally precise for everyone, regardless of race.<\/p>\n

Yet other risk equations that include race are still being used\u2014including ones that have been used to deny former NFL players\u2019 payouts in a concussion settlement<\/a>, ones that might contribute to underdiagnosing breast cancer<\/a> in Black women, and ones that have miscalculated the lung function of Black and Asian patients<\/a>. Ending the use of race-based multipliers in these and dozens of other calculators will take more than a task force in one medical specialty. It\u2019ll need researchers to not just believe, but act on the knowledge that race is not biology, and for the biomedical research enterprise to implement clearer standards for how these calculators are used. Otherwise, it\u2019s just a matter of time before another tool that wrongly uses race to make decisions about patients\u2019 bodies trickles into clinical care…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If nothing in medicine changes, it\u2019s just a matter of time before yet another race-based risk calculator harms people of color.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2039,8,20],"tags":[31741,31981,31714,26777,18329,31740,32111],"class_list":["post-61794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-health-medicine","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-egfr","tag-glomerular-filtration-rate","tag-jyoti-madhusoodanan","tag-national-football-league","tag-nfl","tag-race-correction","tag-wired"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61795,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61794\/revisions\/61795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}