For years, pediatricians have followed the wrong guidelines linking race to the risks of urinary tract infections and jaundice in newborns. In a new policy announced Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics said it was putting all its guidelines under a microscope to eliminate “racial” medicine and the resulting health gaps.
The review of AAP treatment recommendations, which began before the death of George Floyd in 2020 and intensified after doctors worried that black youths had been treated and neglected, said Dr. Joseph Wright, lead author of the new policy. and Chief Health Justice Officer at the University of Maryland Medical System.
The influential academy began to purge outdated councils. He is committed to carefully reviewing his “entire catalog,” including guidelines, educational materials, textbooks and newsletters, Wright said.
“We are really much stricter about the ways we assess disease risk and health outcomes,” Wright said. “We have to be responsible this way. This will require heavy lifting. “
Dr Brittany James, a family doctor and medical director at a health center in Chicago, said the academy was making a major move.
“What makes it so monumental is the fact that it’s a medical facility and it’s not just words. They work, “said James.
In recent years, other major medical groups, including the American Medical Association, have made similar promises. They are driven in part by civil rights and social justice movements, but also by science, which shows the strong role that social conditions, genetics and other biological factors play in determining health.
Last year, the academy withdrew a calculation of guidelines based on the unproven idea that black children face a lower risk than white children of urinary tract infections. The review found that the strongest risk factors were previous urinary tract infections and fever lasting more than 48 hours, not race, Wright said.
A revision of the guidelines for jaundice in newborns – which currently suggests that certain competitions have a higher and lower risk – is planned for this summer, Wright said.
Dr Nia Hurd-Garris, head of the Academic Group on Minority Health and Justice and a pediatrician at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, noted that the new policy includes a brief history “of how some of our commonly used clinical aids came about. – through pseudoscience and racism. “
Whatever the intention, these aids have harmed patients, she said.
“This violates our oath as doctors – not to cause harm – and as such should not be used,” said Hurd-Garis.
Dr Valerie Walker, a specialist in neonatal care and health justice at Columbus National Children’s Hospital in Ohio, called the new policy a “critical step” in reducing racial health disparities.
The academy calls on other medical institutions and specialized groups to take a similar approach in working to eliminate racism in medicine.
“We can’t just plug a leak in a pipe full of holes and expect it to be fixed,” Hurd-Garris said. “This statement sheds light on pediatricians and other health care providers to find and patch these holes.”
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Follow AP medical writer Lindsay Tanner at @LindseyTanner.
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The Associated Press’s Department of Health and Science receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Scientific Education. AP is solely responsible for all content.
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