The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #59429

Kari L Karsjens, JD, Institute for Ethics, American Medical Association, 515 N. State Street, 8th floor, Chicago, IL 60610, 3124645169, kari_karsjens@ama-assn.org

The IOM Report, “Unequal Treatment” highlighted the inextricable relationship between race, ethnicity, and public health. Critical Race Theory (“CRT”) is a body of legal scholarship that attempts to deconstruct the existing institutional structures that contribute to racial discrimination and inequality, thereby providing a useful framework for policy and ethical discussions on racial disparities in health care.

Various CRT scholars provide structural and thematic influences that are useful in addressing racial disparities in health care. For example, Richard Delgado notes that CRT challenges racial orthodoxy, questions comfortable liberal premises, and searches for new ways of thinking about our nation's most intractable and insoluble problem – race. Delgado further notes that CRT is characterized by important themes highly relevant to health care. Of note, the health care profession has now been empowered with the belief that knowledge and ideas are powerful and have been formally charged with a call to action based on the IOM report.

Currently, there is a pressing need to critically examine and explore the financial and ethical incentives that would analyze and determine the appropriate premises and role of moderate civil rights law as applied to health care access, treatment, and health benefits. There is also a need for health care professionals and academia to further develop the multidisciplinary intersections of social science, law, medicine, and public health to identify disparities, propose practical solutions, and develop sound policy bases for eliminating the structural racism and racial inequities in health care.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:
• Understand the basic foundation of civil rights jurisprudence in terms of fundamental rights and liberties as applied to public health and mistrust by minorities.
• Recognize and explore the major principles of critical race theory.
• Identify various issues, topics, and dilemmas in the health care system, developing theories or themes that account for race and mistrust by minorities (such as medical malpractice and minority plaintiffs, medical errors from cultural communication gaps).
• Develop a multidisciplinary and critical analysis of the existing social structures, institutions, policies, and social determinants of health that may be contributing to racial disparities, inequities, and/or discrimination in health care.

Keywords: Health Disparities, Minority Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.