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Public policy and health in the USA: affirmative action and racial health justice
March 16, 2023 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Presented in partnership with:
The US Supreme Court will likely outlaw racial considerations in university admissions this spring. How might this affect health and healthcare? It will probably shrink the proportion of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous physicians. But it won’t just impact prospective doctors—racially minoritized physicians are more likely to practice in medically underserved regions. The mortality rate of Black newborns is far lower when they’re delivered by a Black (vs. White) physician, and Black men are more likely to act on screening recommendations from Black physicians. The benefits of physician racial diversity stand out against the backdrop of large and widening racial health disparities in the US. Black, American Indian, and Alaskan Native people are more likely to die prematurely, including from conditions where medical care makes a difference. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black-White gap in life expectancy widened from 4.0 to 5.8 years, and the gap for Indigenous people increased from 7.0 to 10.3 years. The United States ranks last out of 11 peer countries in access to care, equity, and healthcare outcomes.
During this Lancet Webinar, a panel of experts will assess the predicted effects of the forthcoming Supreme Court decision on racial health disparities as well as racial diversity in the health professions. They will explore strategies to improve access to care, equity, and health outcomes in the wake of the court’s ruling. Speakers will include a prominent law school Dean, a physician-economist and MacArthur Fellow, and New York City’s Chief Medical Officer. This session will conclude with a live Q&A.
Speakers
North American Executive Editor
The Lancet
Miriam has been with The Lancet since 2020, as a Senior Editor at The Lancet and The Lancet Group’s Preprints Editor. Prior to that, she lived for over 12 years in Geneva, Switzerland where she worked primarily at WHO Headquarters and at the Global Fund and UNAIDS. Prior to Geneva, Miriam was in the US Public Health Service at the US CDC, first in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) and as a Senior Research Scientist Officer in the Division of Viral Hepatitis and in the Division of Global HIV/AIDS. She have also lived and worked in Tunisia, Bangladesh, Denmark, and Brazil and holds a PhD in Social Work from the University of Georgia (USA), where she was also an Assistant Professor and a researcher in the global epidemiology of refugee mental health and posttraumatic stress disorder. Miriam has a MSc in Social Work with a minor in Research from Columbia University (USA) and a BA in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA).
Fellow, National Clinician Scholars Program and PhD Student in Investigative Medicine
Yale University
Michael is a psychiatrist, National Clinician Scholar, and PhD student in Investigative Medicine at Yale University (USA).
Dean and Harold H. Greene Professor of Law
George Washington University
Dayna Bowen Matthew, JD, PhD, is Dean of the George Washington Law School (USA) and author of best-selling books, ‘Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality’ and ‘Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America’.
Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University
Founder and Co-Director, Health Inequality Lab
Professor Marcella Alsan is a Physician-Economist studying Health Inequality at the Harvard Kennedy School (USA). She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2021.
Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Commissioner for the Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Dr. Michelle Morse is Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Commissioner at the NYC Department of Health. She is also an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School (USA) and Co-Founder of EqualHealth and the Social Medicine Consortium.
