AAFP News (07/25/23)

Newly published resources from the American Academy of Family Physicians seek to advance health equity. The materials include the Anti-Racism: Tools for Change online continuing medical education (CME) activity and an article, "It's Time: Six Steps to Creating an Anti-Racist Clinic," in the July/August edition of FPM. "Physicians may not have awareness of their biases or the impact of these biases on patient care and health outcomes," said Christen Johnson, MD, MPH, FAAFP, the faculty presenter for the on-demand CME activity. "Likewise, physicians may not be aware of the common practices in medicine that perpetuate racial health disparities and disenfranchise patients. This activity can assist physicians in meeting these needs for their patients." The activity covers topics including biases among the medical team, racism's role in health disparities and the experience of medical racism. Participants will learn how physicians can better understand racism's modern impacts on patients and health outcomes; recognize their own biases, the social categorization of medicine and better engage with patients of different identities; and consider a plan that can help them deal with difficult discussions, new concepts and content and personal biases. The FPM article outlines a process to help clinicians and personnel improve health outcomes and mitigate inequities that individuals may be reinforcing. Focus areas include perceiving each patient as an individual, training staff on health disparities' causes and re-assessing application of race-based algorithms and treatment calculators.

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