Physicians tend to rely on diagnostic criteria, including BMI, that can influence patients’ access to care, referrals, and insurance coverage for indicated interventions.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(7):E507-513. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.507.
Erica Chou, MD, Thomas Grawey, DO, and Jane B. Paige, PhD
Biases rooted in historically entrenched assumptions about medical supremacy are reified in popular cultural representations of health professionals and in students’ lived experiences.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(5):E338-343. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.338.
Beyond consensus that pain is “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience,” its biology remains poorly understood, and options for its treatment remain frustratingly inadequate.
Reducing racial disparities in pain treatment requires an interdisciplinary approach to identifying causes of racial biases and teaching health care professionals to recognize and reduce them.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(3):221-228. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.3.medu1-1503.
Nalini Vadivelu, MD, Sukanya Mitra, MD, MAMS, and Roberta L. Hines, MD
Inadequate education of primary care clinicians leads to inadequately treated pain, which has myriad dire consequences. To address this problem, education about pain management should be made a mandatory part of medical school curricula.