Description

This apology came about after an AMA-supported panel of exerts studied the history of racial divide in organized medicine. In this video, Dr. Thaddeus Bell talks about this history of discrimination and the impact of the apology. .

Transcript

Rebecca Fox: An important first step that’s what many healthcare professionals have called the American Medical Association’s apology for history of racial inequality towards African-American doctors. This apology came about after an AMA supported panel of experts studied the history of racial divide and organized medicine. What does panel found was more than 100 years of discriminatory practices that prevented African-American doctors from participating in the AMA? Joining us now to talk about this history of discrimination and the impact of the apology is family practice physician Doctor Thaddeus Bell. Dr. Bell, thank you so much for joining us. Dr. Thaddeus Bell: Thank you very much for having me again, Rebecca. Rebecca Fox: This is not the first time the American Medical Association in some capacity has apologized for discrimination against Africans-Americans. I know in 2005, the then President of the association apologized so what makes this year’s apology different. Dr. Thaddeus Bell: I think the thing that makes this year apology different is that number one, it was an apology that was first of all done by the past president of the American Medical Association and it was publicized in a way that the first apology back in 2005 was not publicized. The apology done in 2005 was directly related to what discrimination, what role it played in health disparities and in 2005, the American Medical Association and the National Medical Association were in the process of trying to collaborate and find ways in which he could deal globally with the health disparity issue. Rebecca Fox: What were some of the AMA discrimination policies that this independent panel found? Dr. Thaddeus Bell: Well, the independent panel found number one that the organization for over 100 years had discriminatory policies directed to what Africans-Americans. Those policies included not allowing African-American physicians to participate in the AMA. Now, I should mention that what AMA did is the AMA endorsed state organizations that the AMA was apparent to then those organizations not allowing African-Americans to participate. And so what they did for African-American is number one is because we could not participate in the AMA then that often times meant that we could not have hospital privileges by hospitals in our community, that we were feel us to practice in the basements of many hospitals and it also set a mindset towards African-Americans physicians that we are inferior to white physicians and as a result that mindset contributed to a lot of racial disparities that we currently experienced today. Rebecca Fox: That brings me to the next question, how much do these policies affect the healthcare of African-Americans and to what extent are these policies still affecting us? Dr. Thaddeus Bell: Well, the AMA came to the conclusion that this mindset, this discriminatory policies which started back at its inception and in fact continued through the Civil War and all the way up through the 60s when the country in fact was trying to move forward with improving racial discrimination. But the AMA being the major body that it was did not move forward with the country and did not do the right thing by all of its physicians. I think the thing that bothered most people, most white physicians was that the AMA had one of its principles. The hypocritical and the hypocritical oath along with other oaths that AMA was built on said that we should not discriminate, said that we should treat everybody the same, said that by all means should respect our fellow colleagues and I think that going into this century when they looked back at it. They were embarrassed. They felt that going forward, we could not go forward in a collaborative way if they did not speak to the past discriminations that were done, acknowledging that they happened and in collaborating with the enemy going forward to help get rid of some of these disparities. I would also imagine that because that apology never came it sent a message that was never spoken but was always felt that African-American physicians were inferior. Rebecca Fox: Moving forward, I know that there are efforts underway to increase the number of minorities in medical schools among the ranks of practicing physicians, the AMA has launched programs along with the National Medical Association and the National Hispanic Medical Association to give scholarships to these schools. What more can be done to bridge this gap? Dr. Thaddeus Bell: First of all, let me explain that the National Medical Association was born as a result of the AMA discriminatory policy. So the National Medical Association is made up of all the African-American physicians in this country. We have a membership of 25,000 plus. The Hispanic Medical Association has also come as a result of the past discriminatory policies of the AMA. What’s going to happen going forward we hope is that number one, we’re going to collaborating more for a common purpose and that’s to show that everybody in the country get appropriate healthcare. We’re going to deal with the health disparities that came as a result of the discriminatory policies and we are going to deal with them in a very effective way going forward. First of all, the AMA has also recognized that because of these policies we don’t have enough minority health care providers and so as a result we’re going to prepare programs in which we can increase the number of health care providers of African-American, Hispanic. Just increase the diversity of health care providers in general. So we’re going to provide scholarships. We are going to provide mentoring programs and the like. So that’s going to help. Rebecca Fox: And along the same lines, we were talking about the University of Florida study that showed white medical students were less and pathetic towards African-American virtual patients and that mock doctor-patient scenario. So what needs to happen to eliminate the bias that’s found in the doctor-patient relationship? Dr. Thaddeus Bell: Well, I think going forward but first of all, those that you are referring to are very to a small study that was done down in Florida where they took a look by using a virtual patient as to whether or not there was any bias in the way they constructed. The evaluation was very interesting but the bottom line was that after looking at the data they came to the conclusion that when patients saw an African-American patient as compared to white patients, when students saw an African-American patient compared to a white patient that the level of compassion was different with the white patient as compared to the African-American patient. I think that’s a step in the right direction because I think that medicine in general is beginning to recognize bias and racism and does play a role as of physicians come from that background and however we are coming to groups where that could be a major problem when it comes to patient care so we’re identifying the problem and now we are trying to figure out a way in which we can teach students going forward to and differently solved. That’s an interesting study. I think a lot of people are going to be looking at it going forward and know that in my situation at the medical school where I worked will be looking at that study and see what we can learn from it. Rebecca Fox: We talked before about cultural competency programs. Some states are now requiring that medical students go through training in this area. What type of training? What’s involved with this training? Dr. Thaddeus Bell: Well, the cultural competency piece is a new piece and I might add that the National Medical Association is leading the way on culture competency and what we are trying to teach physicians is that when patients come from a different background from the doctor. The doctor needs to understand something about the culture from which that patient comes and the doctor needs to understand not to shut down but he needs to be more open so that the communication can be better and so that these patients will be more inclined to believe him if he is sensitive to the culture. The AMA as well as the American Association of Medical Colleges is recognized and this is very, very important. There are a number of states already that have a very diverse population or requiring as a part of their licensure procedure that doctors have some cultural competency training. But it is just beginning because we do not have the course setup, sort of fact core setup but it is going to happen. Trust me. I think it’s going to happen. And even in South Carolina where we have Africans-Americans and a growing population of Hispanics and a small population of American-Indians, we are probably going to be looking at the culture competency piece too. Rebecca Fox: Dr. Bell, thank you so much for talking about this always important issue. Dr. Thaddeus Bell: Thank you very much, Rebecca. Rebecca Fox: And you can watch more videos featuring Dr. Thaddeus Bell on ICYou.com. For ICYou on topic, I'm Rebecca Fox.