White Coats for Black Lives advocates that American medicine address racial inequities in health and health care by promoting diversity, eliminating implicit racial bias in the physician workforce, and advocating for equitable social structures.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(10):978-982. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.10.sect1-1510.
Jonathan M. Metzl, MD, PhD and Dorothy E. Roberts, JD
The call for structural competency encourages medicine to broaden its approach to matters of race and culture so that it might better address both individual-level doctor and patient characteristics and institutional factors.
A single-payer health system is the only way for the United States to consolidate fragmented health care administration, successfully negotiate lower prices for medical care, and adopt responsible rather than profit-driven strategies.
Deciding whether to recommend Avastin or Lucentis raises ethical issues. Should the public health consequences of using a far more expensive drug trump what the doctor thinks is best for the individual patient?
The pharmaceutical industry's influence on the process of defining illness can be positive, as when drug companies increase public awareness of disease and develop effective therapies, or negative, if it pushes the boundaries of illness too far in pursuit of profit.