Changes in the US healthcare system are needed to overcome continuing racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, according to the American College of Physicians (ACP).
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, Updated 2010, which updates a policy paper released in 2003, outlines recommendations on how to close the gap between racial and ethnic minority patients and their white counterparts.
Among other recommendations, the paper states that “Physicians and other health care professionals need to acknowledge the cultural, informational, and linguistic needs of their patients as our society increasingly becomes more racially and ethnically diverse.”
“Closing the healthcare disparities gap will be a difficult, multifaceted, and important task,” said J. Fred Ralston, Jr, MD, president of ACP, in a statement.”Overwhelming evidence shows that racial and ethnic minorities continue to be prone to poorer quality health care than white Americans, even when factors such as insurance status are controlled.”
A study published online June 23 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute provides an example of how this applies in cancer care. The researchers found that underinsured African American women had worse breast cancer survival outcomes than underinsured non-Hispanic whites.
The study, by Ian K. Komenaka, MD, of Wishard Memorial Hospital, Indianapolis, Indiana, and colleagues, was the first to look at underinsured populations of African-American and non-Hispanic white women with comparable sociodemographic profiles treated at a single institution. The study included 574 patients, 84% of whom were underinsured.
The researchers found that “Despite the similar surgical care and adjuvant therapy, African-American women in this study had lower overall and breast cancer–specific survival compared with non-Hispanic white women.” The difference in survival, they said, “appears to be attributable in part to differences in clinical and socio-demographic factors between the groups.”