Contributions of Systemic and Scientific Racism to Disparities in Patient Care in the Healthcare Field of Black Americans through a Neuroscience and Psychology Lens

Debich, Elizabeth

Contributions of Systemic and Scientific Racism to Disparities in Patient Care in the Healthcare Field of Black Americans through a Neuroscience and Psychology Lens

Persistent URL

https://dspace.allegheny.edu/handle/10456/52020

Author(s)

Debich, Elizabeth

Date Issued

May 14, 2021

Abstract

Racism is physically bad for everyone’s health. In comparison to sixteen different industrialized countries all Americans live shorter and more immunocompromised lives, in comparison to their counterparts across the world (Gilligan, 2015). However, experiencing scientific and institutional/systemic racism in the past and present has been found to produce lasting and long term effects on the quality of patient care received by Black Americans. America’s prior medical history has influenced modern day research in irreparable ways. There are three main pathways that are responsible for strengthening implicit biases and maintaining negative health outcomes, which are prolonged discrimination, the physician-decision route, and the physician-patient route (Penner et al. 2014). This review looks at ways in which physicians can combat their implicit biases. The main goals of this literature review are to a.) research medical history and how it led to modern day health disparities in patient care b.) understand why health disparities in patient care persist and potential acute interventions c.) apply a psychological and neuroscientific lens to pre existing literature d.) create bias training workshops applying the literature and my background in social neuroscience and psychology.

Major

Neuroscience

Psychology

Honors

Psychology, 2021

First Reader(s)

Rudolph, Lauren M.