1) Structural issues within health care delivery are implicated in health care disparities. Please brainstorm 4 structural issues that might contribute to clinical HCD.
- The geographic location of hospitals/health centers and their proximity to public transportation;
- The language capabilities of the health care providers and staff of the hospital/health centers;
- The language of signage within hospitals/health centers and available printed materials directing treatment and securing informed consent; and
- The availability of training and reference materials detailing signs and symptoms of disease in bodies of different race.
2) Do individual physicians contribute to health care disparities? If you think so, and you ran a medical school, what would you do to change that? If you think they don’t, how would you teach medical students about HCD?
Yes, I believe that individual health care providers contribute to health disparities because they bring with them biases from their experience, as do all humans. In particular, many people have unconscious racist beliefs that influence their behaviors. If I ran a medical school, in addition to teaching about health disparities through reviewing research results and theoretical models, I would include practical modules that would allow students to recognize the biases that they have, explore how these may emerge in their day to day lives, and practice new behaviors to replace those (through role-playing).