One of the most prominent and dangerous characteristics of the progressive left is its totalitarianism--all other human endeavors must be subordinated to its political theories and projects, and every endeavor, no matter how apolitical, must be infused with them. The scientific search for truth, the educational attempt to disseminate knowledge--everything--must be mangled to accord with leftist dogma and pseudoscience. Now we're told that engineers, pilots, and doctors will all be chosen and educated in accordance with such ideas as well--and in many cases, of course, rejected for rejecting them.
Respectfully: no, medical schools should *not* combat racism. Unless you mean: actual racism arising inside medical schools. If you're at Big State U. Medical School, and you find out that Dr. Smith is grading people down on the basis of their race, then yes, of course. Actual racism inside your institution should be dealt with as we've done for the last 75 years.
But no one has ever denied that. The questions are: should medical training be infused with leftist dogma and pseudoscience? And: should medical training include indoctrinating medical students with the idea that, qua doctors, they should go out and become "anti-"racist activists? The answer to both questions is, obviously, in the negative. Addressing actual racism if it arises in your institution is one thing. Becoming a crusader for crackpot leftist madness...a completely different one... And to see this as part of what it is to be a doctor is just daft.
In Obstetrics we are actually ignoring research in the name of equity and anti racism.
A recent paper contradicted prior years of flawed data to report good news. Maternal mortality was actually lower than previously thought. Instead of a positive reaction ACOG chose to criticize the paper because it somehow encouraged us as physicians to now stop caring about it and the fact that maternal mortality is worse among non Hispanic black women
I went to medical school in South Carolina in the 80s. We had one black student in a class of 40, while the state’s population was one fourth black. Most of our indigent patients were black. About a third of the patients at the VA were black. I was a white doctor married to a Hispanic woman.
During medical school and residency I photocopied all the admission notes I wrote on patients. I still have these notes, hundreds of them. On the first line we were trained to include the patients race, as it’s relevant for certain disease risks, diagnoses and prognoses: ‘e.g. 41 year old black male with sickle cell disease complaining of chest pain for the last three hours…’
Looking back over these hundreds of notes I can’t see any proof I was swimming in a sea of ‘whiteness’ that led me to racist behavior. One is always blind to oneself, but judging by objective measures I see no difference between how I handled a white patient and a black one. The length of the notes shows no difference. The depth of probing into their complaint, no difference. The range and appropriateness of lab studies, none. The therapy recommended, none. If memory serves, I also didn’t treat either race differently in my bedside manner, empathy or decision making.
In other words, I fail to find, in my little sample of 1, evidence of personal (or systemic) racism in this deep South school of nearly 40 years ago.
I agree with Jeffrey that trying to find it and root it out, where it doesn’t exist, is a witch hunt worthy only of Inquisitors or Soviet commissars. We should always se mettre en question as the French say: i.e. shine a harsh and honest light on ourselves. But a witch hunt is no way to address the issue of racism.
Racism is fundamentally a matter of the human heart, just like anti-Semitism, homophobia or Islamophobia. There are outward manifestations, of course, but stamping these out does nothing to change the source. It starts in the minds and hearts, and unless it is addressed there, none of this external witch hunting is going to make any difference. On the contrary…
I am a bioethics professor primarily for nurses; this is a superb and timely article. It will be assigned to my students. Medical Indication should always over-ride any hint of social worth. No longer is that the case -- to the detriment of patients. Thank you for this.
It would be so easy to swap this approach and instead teach medical students how to listen and interact well with all individuals. If a doctor learns to respect all of their patients, and value their experiences and concerns, whatever racism that exists will be cleanly wiped away. More importantly, doctors need the tools, time, and incentives to provide this kind of care and help patients learn how to advocate for themselves. Medicine today has bigger problems that negatively affect all of us, but especially the timid and less educated.
100%. And yet this would seem to do the opposite, train physicians to instead form biases (and reward them for having!) about their patients that could absolutely negatively affect the care they're providing.
Thank you Dr. Flier. The medical and healthcare complex is rightfully viewed by a growing percentage of our country as less honest than the defense complex. The DEI dash is a sprint in the wrong direction to correct what has gone woefully wrong in the practice of medicine. By woefully wrong I am specifically talking about oxy scripts, anti-anxiety scripts and the embrace of dysfunctional licensed medical practitioners making decisions for parents and loved ones 'because they know better'. Rarely does the medical provider face the consequences of the damage in life that they may create in practice. I say this despite them being the most sued and losing the most civil suits in America.
I love them still, but it is time to get the crap together as a profession.
The rot spreads, I don't think I can trust a doctor who graduated post 2020. I know I would not hire a STEM graduate from any university who promotes alternatives to scientific method in their curriculum.
“This past December, I contacted one of the authors of the original report, David Muller, who had recently left the position as Mount Sinai’s dean of medical education. I was interested in what the “comprehensive review” of their curriculum for racist elements had revealed, and whether the findings were written up as a scholarly paper to permit analysis and discussion. He reported that in the three years since the paper promising sweeping changes was published, no findings have been reported.”
What is one to make of that? It would seem to suggest that either no comprehensive review actually took place, meaning the original promise to conduct one was empty virtue signaling, OR that the review DID take place, and no racist elements were found—and that the reviewers were disappointed in that result. Because why would that not be great news that you would want to shout from the rooftops?
Dr. Flier is too concerned with scientific objectivity and answers. He does not seem to understand that dei and woke are religions rather than science. You are supposed to swallow the dogma and not ask any questions. If you question any woke drivel you are branded a racist.
Why are medical schools so crazy? That question actually has an answer. See below. However, medical schools are, in fact, very crazy. The terms AFAB/AMAB are widely use in medical schools. The fact that they are scientifically bogus has had zero impact. Medical schools routinely talk about ‘pregnant people’. ‘Pregnant women’ would (by them) be considered to be far too bigoted. See “Med Schools Are Now Denying Biological Sex” by Katie Herzog.
Here is another example, a medical school invited a person to give a talk. The talk was titled “'The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind'”. The medical school was at Yale. You would think Yale would reject a talk with such an obviously racist title. You would think, and you would be wrong. But, don’t worry, the story gets worse. The speaker spoke of her fantasies where she kills white people with a gun. Quote “I had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body, and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step. Like I did the world a fucking favor”. But, don’t worry, the story gets worse. The speaker was upset that the medical school wouldn’t give her the video of her talk.
Like it or not, ‘anti-racist’ really means ‘anti-white’. The sad tale of Sarah Jeong (far removed from any medical school) provides yet another data point. Of course, she had any number of very racist tweets (which is why the NYT hired her). Zack Beauchamp (in Vox) actually defended her. His claim amounts to “that is just normal SJW speak”. Quote from him “a lot of people on the internet today confusing the expressive way anti-racists and minorities talk about ‘white people’ with actual race-based hatred, for some unfathomable reason”. Expressive? Unfathomable?
Why are doctors (including medical schools) so crazy? Maybe it’s a money thing. Medicine is a field where you can make a lot of money without joining the corporate world. As such it tends to attract folks who want lots of money, but don’t want embrace the corporate world to get it.
One of the most prominent and dangerous characteristics of the progressive left is its totalitarianism--all other human endeavors must be subordinated to its political theories and projects, and every endeavor, no matter how apolitical, must be infused with them. The scientific search for truth, the educational attempt to disseminate knowledge--everything--must be mangled to accord with leftist dogma and pseudoscience. Now we're told that engineers, pilots, and doctors will all be chosen and educated in accordance with such ideas as well--and in many cases, of course, rejected for rejecting them.
Respectfully: no, medical schools should *not* combat racism. Unless you mean: actual racism arising inside medical schools. If you're at Big State U. Medical School, and you find out that Dr. Smith is grading people down on the basis of their race, then yes, of course. Actual racism inside your institution should be dealt with as we've done for the last 75 years.
But no one has ever denied that. The questions are: should medical training be infused with leftist dogma and pseudoscience? And: should medical training include indoctrinating medical students with the idea that, qua doctors, they should go out and become "anti-"racist activists? The answer to both questions is, obviously, in the negative. Addressing actual racism if it arises in your institution is one thing. Becoming a crusader for crackpot leftist madness...a completely different one... And to see this as part of what it is to be a doctor is just daft.
In Obstetrics we are actually ignoring research in the name of equity and anti racism.
A recent paper contradicted prior years of flawed data to report good news. Maternal mortality was actually lower than previously thought. Instead of a positive reaction ACOG chose to criticize the paper because it somehow encouraged us as physicians to now stop caring about it and the fact that maternal mortality is worse among non Hispanic black women
So only bad news reenforces the agenda
Agreed. I should have used quotation marks. It was noble only in their virtue signaling minds
It’s a jobs and career advancement program for physicians who are mediocre at best
Of course they never publish anything. Because there is nothing there. It’s all a grift.
The DEI folx don't care if people die. They just want their money.
I went to medical school in South Carolina in the 80s. We had one black student in a class of 40, while the state’s population was one fourth black. Most of our indigent patients were black. About a third of the patients at the VA were black. I was a white doctor married to a Hispanic woman.
During medical school and residency I photocopied all the admission notes I wrote on patients. I still have these notes, hundreds of them. On the first line we were trained to include the patients race, as it’s relevant for certain disease risks, diagnoses and prognoses: ‘e.g. 41 year old black male with sickle cell disease complaining of chest pain for the last three hours…’
Looking back over these hundreds of notes I can’t see any proof I was swimming in a sea of ‘whiteness’ that led me to racist behavior. One is always blind to oneself, but judging by objective measures I see no difference between how I handled a white patient and a black one. The length of the notes shows no difference. The depth of probing into their complaint, no difference. The range and appropriateness of lab studies, none. The therapy recommended, none. If memory serves, I also didn’t treat either race differently in my bedside manner, empathy or decision making.
In other words, I fail to find, in my little sample of 1, evidence of personal (or systemic) racism in this deep South school of nearly 40 years ago.
I agree with Jeffrey that trying to find it and root it out, where it doesn’t exist, is a witch hunt worthy only of Inquisitors or Soviet commissars. We should always se mettre en question as the French say: i.e. shine a harsh and honest light on ourselves. But a witch hunt is no way to address the issue of racism.
Racism is fundamentally a matter of the human heart, just like anti-Semitism, homophobia or Islamophobia. There are outward manifestations, of course, but stamping these out does nothing to change the source. It starts in the minds and hearts, and unless it is addressed there, none of this external witch hunting is going to make any difference. On the contrary…
All very sensible and true. Unfortunately, to the DEI advocates, Dr. Flier’s viewpoints are simply racist.
I am a bioethics professor primarily for nurses; this is a superb and timely article. It will be assigned to my students. Medical Indication should always over-ride any hint of social worth. No longer is that the case -- to the detriment of patients. Thank you for this.
When extraordinary individuals such as this gentleman write such a damning indictment of present educational practices, you know we are in trouble.
It would be so easy to swap this approach and instead teach medical students how to listen and interact well with all individuals. If a doctor learns to respect all of their patients, and value their experiences and concerns, whatever racism that exists will be cleanly wiped away. More importantly, doctors need the tools, time, and incentives to provide this kind of care and help patients learn how to advocate for themselves. Medicine today has bigger problems that negatively affect all of us, but especially the timid and less educated.
100%. And yet this would seem to do the opposite, train physicians to instead form biases (and reward them for having!) about their patients that could absolutely negatively affect the care they're providing.
Thank you Dr. Flier. The medical and healthcare complex is rightfully viewed by a growing percentage of our country as less honest than the defense complex. The DEI dash is a sprint in the wrong direction to correct what has gone woefully wrong in the practice of medicine. By woefully wrong I am specifically talking about oxy scripts, anti-anxiety scripts and the embrace of dysfunctional licensed medical practitioners making decisions for parents and loved ones 'because they know better'. Rarely does the medical provider face the consequences of the damage in life that they may create in practice. I say this despite them being the most sued and losing the most civil suits in America.
I love them still, but it is time to get the crap together as a profession.
The rot spreads, I don't think I can trust a doctor who graduated post 2020. I know I would not hire a STEM graduate from any university who promotes alternatives to scientific method in their curriculum.
“This past December, I contacted one of the authors of the original report, David Muller, who had recently left the position as Mount Sinai’s dean of medical education. I was interested in what the “comprehensive review” of their curriculum for racist elements had revealed, and whether the findings were written up as a scholarly paper to permit analysis and discussion. He reported that in the three years since the paper promising sweeping changes was published, no findings have been reported.”
What is one to make of that? It would seem to suggest that either no comprehensive review actually took place, meaning the original promise to conduct one was empty virtue signaling, OR that the review DID take place, and no racist elements were found—and that the reviewers were disappointed in that result. Because why would that not be great news that you would want to shout from the rooftops?
What, no racism? Dammit, let's keep looking, it must be here somewhere!
Dr. Flier is too concerned with scientific objectivity and answers. He does not seem to understand that dei and woke are religions rather than science. You are supposed to swallow the dogma and not ask any questions. If you question any woke drivel you are branded a racist.
Why are medical schools so crazy? That question actually has an answer. See below. However, medical schools are, in fact, very crazy. The terms AFAB/AMAB are widely use in medical schools. The fact that they are scientifically bogus has had zero impact. Medical schools routinely talk about ‘pregnant people’. ‘Pregnant women’ would (by them) be considered to be far too bigoted. See “Med Schools Are Now Denying Biological Sex” by Katie Herzog.
Here is another example, a medical school invited a person to give a talk. The talk was titled “'The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind'”. The medical school was at Yale. You would think Yale would reject a talk with such an obviously racist title. You would think, and you would be wrong. But, don’t worry, the story gets worse. The speaker spoke of her fantasies where she kills white people with a gun. Quote “I had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body, and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step. Like I did the world a fucking favor”. But, don’t worry, the story gets worse. The speaker was upset that the medical school wouldn’t give her the video of her talk.
Like it or not, ‘anti-racist’ really means ‘anti-white’. The sad tale of Sarah Jeong (far removed from any medical school) provides yet another data point. Of course, she had any number of very racist tweets (which is why the NYT hired her). Zack Beauchamp (in Vox) actually defended her. His claim amounts to “that is just normal SJW speak”. Quote from him “a lot of people on the internet today confusing the expressive way anti-racists and minorities talk about ‘white people’ with actual race-based hatred, for some unfathomable reason”. Expressive? Unfathomable?
Why are doctors (including medical schools) so crazy? Maybe it’s a money thing. Medicine is a field where you can make a lot of money without joining the corporate world. As such it tends to attract folks who want lots of money, but don’t want embrace the corporate world to get it.