A review of AAP treatment recommendations that began before George Floyd’s death in 2020 and intensified as doctors worried that black youths were being treated and overlooked, said Dr. Joseph Wright, lead author of New Policy and in the field of health. University of Maryland Medical System. The influential academy has begun to clear outdated advice. She vows to scrutinize her “entire list,” including instructions, educational materials, textbooks and newsletter articles, Wright said. “We are really much stricter about the ways in which we assess disease risk and health outcomes,” Wright said. “We have to be accountable this way. It will require a heavy lifter “. Dr. Brittani James, a family medicine physician and medical director at a Chicago health center, said the academy is making a pivotal move. “What makes it so monumental is the fact that it is a medical institution and not just words. “They are playing,” said James. In recent years, other large groups of physicians, including the American Medical Association, have made similar commitments. They are driven in part by civil rights and social justice movements, but also by science, which shows the powerful role that social conditions, genetics and other biological factors play in determining health. Last year, the academy withdrew a guideline based on the unproven idea that black children were at lower risk than white children for urinary tract infections. A review found that the strongest risk factors were previous urinary tract infections and fevers that lasted more than 48 hours, not the fight, Wright said. A review of guidance on neonatal jaundice – which is currently suggesting that some breeds are at lower risk – is planned for this summer, Wright said. Dr Nia Heard-Garris, head of an academy team for minority health and equality and a pediatrician at Chicago’s Lurie Children’s Hospital, noted that the new policy includes a brief history “of how some of the most commonly used clinical aids have been made. us – through pseudoscience and racism “. Whatever the intent, these aids have harmed patients, he said. “This violates our oath as doctors – not to do harm – and therefore should not be used,” said Herd-Garris. Dr. Valerie Walker, a specialist in neonatal care and equity health at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, called the new policy “a critical step” in reducing racial health inequalities. The academy urges other medical institutions and specialty groups to take a similar approach to eradicating racism in medicine. “We can not just plug a leak into a pipe full of holes and wait for it to be repaired,” said Heard-Garris. “This statement sheds light on pediatricians and other health care providers to find and repair these holes.”
Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner at @LindseyTanner.
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