Early last month, the Association of American Medical Colleges-the organization that oversees the Medical College Admission Test and cosponsors the accrediting body for all medical schools- published a story claiming that black patients fare better with black doctors, an idea that has become popular across the health-care establishment.
So is the implicit claim that lowering standards and elevating race in medical school admissions maximizes patient welfare.
The researchers make no allowance for how their results are shaped by their modeling of the relationship between black representation among PCPs and life expectancy-including a curious decision to omit the roughly 50 percent of counties that don't have any black PCPs. Data can be manipulated to reach just about any conclusion.
The JAMA Network Open study reveals that blacks have the highest expected life expectancy in counties with high proportions of black doctors-and high levels of poverty.
In the second stage some patients changed their mind after meeting with the doctor, such that their willingness to receive certain screenings was higher among black doctors.
Trouble is, the experiment consisted of only six black and eight non-black doctors.
The AAMC says that its mission "Focuses on transforming health care in four primary mission areas: medical education, patient care, medical research, and diversity, inclusion and equity in health care." It's clear that the organization's obsession with that last priority trumps everything else.
https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-association-of-american-medical-colleges-selective-research
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