Racial bias and discrimination may negatively impact heart disease care, risk factors

“African-American race negatively influenced the decision-making process for heart transplants, especially during discussions among health care providers,” said lead author Khadijah Breathett, MD, MS, an assistant professor of medicine and advanced heart failure/transplant cardiologist at the University of Arizona’s Sarver Heart Center. “Since advanced therapy selection meetings are conversations rather than surveys, race may contribute significantly to treatment recommendations.”

AHA volunteer expert Kiarri N. Kershaw, PhD, MPH, said this was a “strong study and really important for people, clinicians and others to really understand how implicit bias can kind of creep into decision-making, and how it can have an important impact on outcomes.”

This content published in the Journal of the American Heart Association was covered by:

U.S. News & World Report: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2019-11-12/racial-bias-...

 Medical Express: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-11-racial-bias-discrimination-negati...

Cleveland Plain Dealer: https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2019/11/study-finds-racial-bias-may-affe...

Health Day: https://consumer.healthday.com/general-health-information-16/organ-transplant-news-509/racial-bias-seen-in-heart-transplants-751772.html 

WebMD: https://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/news/20191112/racial-bias-seen-in-heart-transplants 

Arizona Public Media: https://www.azpm.org/p/home-articles-news/2019/11/18/161841-study-reveal...

Healio, Nov. 19, 2019 

Journal of the American Heart Association: publication  Editorial: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.119.014355