At a time when medical researchers are under pressure to increase diversity in clinical trials, a Johns Hopkins study is sparking outrage among some physicians because of its large number of Black patients.
When someone tells you there is no systemic racism in American medicine, this is a really good example of how there is. Australians shouldn’t feel too superior, because we have our own share of problems.
The paper was published last fall without much notice but caused a stir on social media in recent weeks. It was a retrospective study analyzing the abilities of three specially trained nurse practitioners to perform colonoscopies, an invasive and potentially lifesaving cancer screening procedure normally done by gastroenterologists. Of the more than 1,000 patients who received screening colonoscopies from the nurse practitioners between 2010 and 2016, nearly 75% were Black.
