On Race and Medicine: Insider Perspectives

(Hardback)

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Health disparities exist between races in America. These inequalities are cataloged in numerous studies, reports, conferences, articles, seminars, and keynote speeches. Various studies include reports on income, health insurance, cultural differences between patients and their physicians, language barriers, and biological racial differences in the discourse of health disparities. On Race and Medicine: Insider Perspectives is a collection of enlightening personal essays written by an interdisciplinary group of scholars, physicians, and medical school deans. They invite readers to evaluate disparities differently when considering race in American healthcare. They address the very real, everyday circumstances of healthcare differences where race is concerned, and shine light on the realities of race itself, inequalities in healthcare, and on the very way these American complexities can be discussed and considered. This is not another chronicle of studies cataloging differences in health care based on race. The essays are narrated from practical and personal stances examining disparate health between the races. Decreasing inequalities in health for racial minorities, who are sicker in so many areasdiabetes, heart disease, stage of cancer, etc.is financially good for everyone. But understanding health inequalities in race is of even greater human importance. How race intersects with medicine is striking given the existence of racial issues throughout the rest of American history. These authors attempt to explain and explore the truth about health disparities, which is necessary before we can turn our national attention toward eliminating differences in health based on race.

Reviews

Dr. Garcia and his colleagues have woven together a series of personal and emotional essays that highlight the inequalities that continue to plague us and significantly contribute to our national disease and economic burden. A good read for all disciplines who are responsible for those fellow citizens we call patients! -- Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, FACS, 17th Surgeon General of the United States; Distinguished Professor of Public Health, University of Arizona
This collection of interdisciplinary first person essays on race and medicine is refreshingly readable, touching, lyrical, and informative, all at the same time! With such keen attention to the details of life experiences and race and health, this work awakened both my mind and heart. It is a wonderful contrast to the usual streams of hopeless data points, in stacks of papers filled with only more questions. From Detroit, to Stockton, to Vallejo, to Pueblo the messy and beautiful complexities of identity are located in family stories, the absence of high quality hospitals, health services, and grocery stores and recounted with language and cadence that drew me in, and lifted me up despite the still unresolved intellectual and practical solutions for achieving equity for those of us on the margins. I, for one, look forward to the next book! -- Melanie Tervalon, MD, MPH, Consultant

Author Bio

Richard Garcia, MD, a pediatrician, grew up in Stockton, California. His personal essays on race and medicine appear in academic, medical, and policy journals. He is the editor of On Race and Medicine: Insider Perspectives, a collection of interdisciplinary personal essays on health disparities.