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The AMA Racial Equity Plan is a Nightmare for Healthcare
The American Medical Association has finally gone fully woke. After firing prominent members after a removed podcast (replaced by an apology), they’ve decided to state their goals for equity.
Stephanie Stevens, of Medscape, summarizes everything nicely:
Moving forward from that [infamous podcast], the new strategic plan announces that the AMA will pursue five strategic approaches:
- Embed racial and social justice throughout the AMA enterprise culture, systems, policies, and practices
- Build alliances and share power with historically marginalized and minoritized physicians and other stakeholders
- Push upstream to address all determinants of health and the root causes of inequities
- Ensure equitable structures and opportunities in innovation
- Foster pathways for truth, racial healing, reconciliation, and transformation for the AMA’s past
If this doesn’t give people chills, I don’t know what would.
The AMA advises a number of organizations and their journal known as JAMA is one of the premier journals used as a reputable source by all medical facilities in the US, including teaching hospitals and universities. From the very beginning of their medical careers, students are taught to revere the AMA and the advice that they propose regarding medical conditions and policies in the US.
Since they’ve moved even further away from medicine and into politics (beginning with Obamacare and the idea of universal healthcare as a right), it is harder and harder to see them as a purely medical authority, rather than a political body used to reinforce the woke status-quo of our current regime. Unfortunately, our students are not taught to question any of these journals as a part of their so-called “critical thinking” coursework; they are merely taught to parrot them better and one-up them as not being revolutionary enough.
I suppose the important thing is that everyone gets a voice in care.
That’s good.
I certainly hope that they’re planning on being inclusive of the doctor-hating-severely-obese-illegal-drug-using doctors. Because we need to fully represent diversity and give everyone a voice, right?
Right.
Let’s just make sure that the proportions are all correct:
Women need to make up 35.1% of their board, and men need to be at most 64%. Most importantly, we need 0.9% of “Unknown” gender to be represented. I’m not sure how we’ll manage that, but maybe we can have one of these unknown people spend only part of the meeting time there…and we can get down to that 0.9% that would be equitable.
Most of the medical practitioners are MDs (90.6% – there’s that decimal again!), with DO’s coming in at 9.1%. Again, some people who claim to practice do not know their degree…and we’ll have to represent them too at 0.3%.
The median and average age is 51 years old, so we’ll have to make sure there’s enough of them represented, but at the same time, we can’t just go with averages. We’re talking about justice here and averages simply won’t do.
We’ll need to make sure that the addicts among the doctors are represented: there’s about 10-15% (depending on sources) that are addicts at some point during their careers. We’ll need to make sure we have appropriate accommodations so that they can give their voices regarding health care policy.
There’s also 42% of all doctors that are burned out. We need to make sure that they have a voice too.
—–
No wonder no one wants to break it all down into numbers. I’m already exhausted just looking at the different variables. I don’t know how we’re supposed to find doctors of the right age, gender expression, burnout score, ethnicity (or race, possibly both), degrees, and even weight!
But it’s important that we right the wrongs of the past by ensuring that the future be categorized correctly by visible or descriptive features and allowing those to dominate medical policy.
You know.
For equity’s sake.
Sources:
https://www.fsmb.org/physician-census/
https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2020-lifestyle-burnout-6012460
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/medical-professionals/substance-abuse-among-doctors-key-statistics
Published in Healthcare
The AMA has been leftists for as long as I can remember. My father told me that when I was not yet an adult.
They just keep getting worse as they purge anyone not on board.
I looked at the five points and asked myself “What does this even mean?” I read them a few more times and got a fuzzy idea about what they mean. I have concluded that they mean just what the writer intended for them to mean, no more, no less. (A nod to Lewis Carroll).
That doesn’t bother me at. I was afraid there were going to target general equity and thus adjust medical care so that every person has an equal life expectancy.
“Push upstream”
So, imagining yourself as a salmon? Gonna need another stripe in the LGBTQ flag.
Read point number five very carefully. They intend transformation of their past. Rewrite their own history?
I see you didn’t click on the link. Goals for the future include:
https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2021-05/ama-equity-strategic-plan.pdf
And lots of places take their guidance from the AMA. So you’ve been warned.
You are correct, Bryan. I just keep hoping that people are getting their fill of this crap, just like with the local school boards. I am optimistic that the left has pushed too far and those of us who have been sounding the warning bell will be vindicated. A girl can dream.
Yes, that’s an interesting statement isn’t it? What stream are they pushing up? Addressing all determinants of health and the root causes of inequities. My, aren’t we becoming omniscient?
I suspect that is the next step. Nothing is too ridiculous for some minds.
Hmm. What are the social habits of a mature salmon?
Why the vast majority of physicians want nothing to do with the AMA.
And yet, their hospitals do. As does CMS.
As long as they’re guiding from the top down, it doesn’t matter what the majority of the workers say.
Yes, everyone but the board could leave the AMA and it still would have a powerful and respected voice.
It doesn’t give me chills; I don’t know what it means. For instance, what does this mean: “Ensure equitable structures and opportunities in innovation?”
Whatever their definition of equity is: making sure that whatever people they determine have been wronged or not represented adequately are prominently involved in the structure and development of innovation.
Most simply, read as: “we provide opportunity based upon color, religion, and other determinants and these people determine what innovations are socially acceptable for us to promote and provide funding.”
I see point #5 as making up for research and practices centered on “white people”. There is nothing in point #5 about rewriting history.
That or that the AMA puts profits over well-being. The AMA lied and people died.
I bet you can trace a lot more deaths and other medical situations to lockdowns and fatherlessness.
But it’s always better to imagine a public health crisis that enables bigger government than to deal with a real crisis enabled by big government.
I saw what you did there ;-)
I had to see it first. :I
From https://blackhealthmatters.com/public-health/black-male-doctors/
Too few minorities in this country are pursuing careers in medicine, causing a serious lack of diversity among general practitioners and specialty doctors, according to a new report.
For the study, researchers found that in 2012:
From https://www.forbes.com/sites/danabrownlee/2020/08/11/why-are-black-male-doctors-still-so-scarce-in-america/
The fact that Black males comprised only 3.1% of medical school enrollment for the 1978-79 school year according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) probably isn’t that alarming. After all, it was 1978 – Jimmy Carter was President. Dallas and Grease had just been released, and I was only seven. The shocking and demoralizing realization though is that the comparable stat for the 2019-20 year is actually lower at 2.9% (or nearly unchanged at 3.4% for the “alone or in combination statistic” that includes those identifying with another race as well).
How is the AMA going to change this?
Well, there’s the right way which will take a generation, and there’s the dangerous way.
The woke revolution is a real steamroller. I have to admit, even with all my contempt for the dull-witted herd, I did not see this thing coming.
The slow way is the dangerous one. We can’t imagine that other trends will stay constant while we deal with this problem and then that one.
Well, I meant educating a generation of children. But maybe you’re right, there isn’t time left.
I’m sure they will advocate for equity policies: these policies have less to do with capability and more to do with feeling comfortable about representation. As it is, standards for all degrees have been lowered to such a point that a Bachelor’s degree indicates minimal competency in English and mathematics, much less practical skills in a workplace.
Equity increases favorable representation based on the idea that the system itself oppresses these people and we should ignore our standards in favor of representation.
In this case, it is particularly important because BLM has demanded Black doctors and nurses for black patients.
I didn’t click the link, because I assumed you quoted the most interesting part. This new paragraph is says nothing. It is just woke-speak, buzzwords, and platitudes. I am relieved that the worst thing they say is meaningless.
So what exactly was in this notorious podcast that was so hurtful?
Since they guide payment codes for Medicare, I wouldn’t call any of this meaningless.