RBM Frequently Asked Questions

    • Devastating harm: RBM is an anti-Black racist practice that dehumanizes Black people by treating Black bodies as naturally inferior to white bodies. As a result, Black people are often diagnosed with the wrong disease, diagnosed too late, or not diagnosed at all. This leads to Black people experiencing more health complications, suffering, disability, and even death. Racism is the vector of racial health disparities, not “race” (Include links to more info)

    • Intersectional and expansive: RBM also influences policies and practices which affect all other systems of society, expanding its consequences far and wide. This is even worsened with AI, which amplifies the impact of its biased training materials.

    • Expensive: Health disparities cost the US $451 billion in 2018 according to the NIH. It is also expensive for the victims of RBM due to medical debt, poverty, housing instability, and more.

    • RBM is baked into every aspect of health care. It impacts those who are considered at risk for various diseases or disease severity, who gets care, referrals, resources, and what quality of care they recieve. Some examples for where RBM shows up include:

      • Diagnostic devices such as the pulse oximetry used to measure how much oxygenation a person has

      • Calculators that assess organ function or the risk of poor outcomes after a procedure

      • Calculators for intelligence and cognitive function

    • Correct Health Records: Eliminate race based adjustments in electronic health records

    • Fix Medical Tests: Stop using race to adjust results in tests like kidney and lung function

    • Update Risk Calculators: Remove race as a factor in heart disease risk calculators

    • Equal Treatments: Ensure treatments are the same for everyone, regardless of race

    • The End Race Based Medicine Task Force is establishing a tool kit for the community members to understand how to ask questions and advocate for themselves and their loved ones.