Political science

Medical education

Public relations

Computer science

Sociology

Health care

Medicine

Pedagogy

Curriculum

Race (biology)

Ethnic group

Psychology

Programming language

Hidden curriculum

Gender studies

Racism

Construct (python library)

Academic Medicine

The medical community has been complicit in legitimizing claims of racial difference throughout the history of the United States. Unfortunately, a rigorous examination of the role medicine plays in perpetuating inequity across racial lines is often missing in medical school curricula due to time constraints and other challenges inherent to medical education. The imprecise use of race—a social construct—as a proxy for pathology in medical education is a vestige of institutionalized racism. Recent examples are presented that illustrate how attributing outcomes to race may contribute to bias and unequal care. This paper proposes the following recommendations for guiding efforts to mitigate the adverse effects associated with the use of race in medical education: emphasize the need for incoming students to be familiar with how race can influence health outcomes; provide opportunities to hold open conversations about race in medicine among medical school faculty, students, and staff; craft and implement protocols ...

Changing How Race Is Portrayed in Medical Education: Recommendations From Medical Students