Penn Medicine has created an online catalog of black doctors to support people in the underestimated care. Currently, the Conservative Non-Profit organization claims that it discriminates against white suppliers.
Group, does not hurt, filed a lawsuit In March in the US District Court in Eastern Pennsylvania, saying that the catalog violates the title of VI of the Act on civic rights, which prohibits discrimination based on a race.
Do harm, which is in favor of diversity, equality and inclusion in medicine, she sued after one of its 16,000 members was unable to join, because they are white, in accordance with legal documents.
“The Black Doctors catalog is another example of Penn medicine and other institutions that prioritize your identity policy,” said Stanley Goldfarb, chairman to NO Har and a former dean at Penn’s Medical School. “It is both bad and the flaccid use of taxpayers’ money to exclude doctors from the advertising advantages of the catalog just because they are not black.”
Penn Medicine and Wurd, a black radio station in Philadelphia, launched the catalog in October 2024 as a way to connect people with doctors who provide “high quality, full of respect, culturally competent care”, according to the catalog of the catalog.
The online catalog contains contact information for about 100 black doctors from various healthcare systems in Philadelphia and the suburbs of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Penn refused to comment on the pending court disputes.
“We talk to our community every day and we think that the Black Doctors catalog is an important and necessary contribution to the health and well-being of all Philadelphians,” said Ashanti Martin, general director of Wurd Radio.
Conflict to solve racial differences
. Black Doctors catalog It is one of the ways in which Penn and his partners tried to solve problems contributing to racial health differences. Black residents of Philadelphia are more exposed to the development of chronic health diseases, experiencing complications during delivery and die prematurely, compared to white residents.
Leading medical organizations, including American Medical Association AND American Association of Medical CollegesThey encourage health institutions to train more diverse doctors and support patients in access to service providers with common racial or ethnic origin.
“Patients – including those who are veterans, different religions, live in rural areas or are disabled – they may have unique and specific life experiences. Doctors who understand something about these experiences can provide more effective and personalized care”, according to AAMC guidelines for Dei in medicine.
The heritage of sorted hospitals and needy treatment of black patients by leading medical institutions, including Philadelphia, support explain why many people prefer healthcare providers who share their cultural origin.
For example, older residents of Philadelphia can remember hospitals devoted to the treatment of black patients because there are many healthcare services segregated until the 1960s.
Recently, Penn apologized in 2021 for a racist chapter in his medical history, in this case medical experiments of acne drugs that the former doctor conducted prisoners, most of the black people, in the 1950s and 1970s.
But the changing political winds brought observation to many of these efforts.
Trump’s administration threatened to suspend federal funds from institutions that are not in line with the orders of stopping diversity, own capital and inclusion initiatives, causing changes in the best philadelphia institutions.
The University of Pennsylvania, which receives about $ 1 billion a year from federal financing, plans to solve committees related to Dei at a medical school and reviews websites dealing with programs in diversity and pipelines that introduce candidates from various environments to the medical school.
The decision of the Supreme Court in 2023 that schools could not consider the students’ race during parties, opened universities for lawsuits regarding racial initiatives like the Black Doctors diaistors.
Goldfarb he sees no benefits For black patients to manage black doctors. Instead, Penn should focus on improving access to the best possible doctors – regardless of their breed.
“I think it is humiliating,” he said. “They racized the decision.”
The organization also lodged complaints to the Health and Social Welfare Department regarding initiatives based on racing at the address Duke University Health System AND Geisinger College of Health Sciences in scranton.
Case study in Philadelphia
The Black Doctors consortium from Philadelphia Covid-19 shows how to improve access to various doctors can support solve health differences, according to its founder, Ala Stanford, pediatric surgeon, health capital lawyer, author and professor at Penn.
Stanford spoke as an individual, not on behalf of Penn, and said that she could not solve the problem with them.
She said that she had founded a consortium of black doctors in response to press reports that black was diagnosed in Philadelphia and die of Covid at much higher rates than white people.
Wealthy districts more often than low -income neighborhood that had access to tests.
The name, she said, “it was very intended.”
“We know that the healthcare system was unbelievable in America,” said Stanford. “Because of this story, some people – not all – feel more comfortable with black doctors.”
»Read more: The Philly Black Doctors clinic overtook the city in the vaccination of black inhabitants, but Group claims that there is a “place to improve”
The group began to test thousands of people a day in districts, in which Covid spread quickly, and when the vaccines became available, he vaccinated thousands.
By removing barriers for those who had the most problems with obtaining support, the group improved access to everyone, she said.
