Do Stereotypes Effect how Physicians Recommend Treatment to Ethnic Groups?

I decided to write my draft prospectus about how Physicians personal beliefs can negatively impact the health outcomes of their patients. Below is a brief summary of the article.

Disparities in health outcomes among minorities are a serious problem in the United States. While there are a number of issues that impact healthcare disparities, this article focuses on the impact physicians personal beliefs or bias may affect the care that they provide or recommend to their minority patients. Balsa et al, argues that although not always on purpose, physicians personal feelings about certain groups does impact how they provide treatment for those patients. There has been quite a bit of research and numerous articles written that note the differences in treatment recommendations for different races. This is strange because race is a social construct, not a biological construct, it doesn’t make sense that an individual’s race would influence the type of care that they receive. However, the policy changes to discourage these occurrences must occur with physicians. Race is an easily observable feature; there isn’t anything individuals can do to change their ethnicity or race classification. Changing physician’s bias will be need to begin with providing a standard of care across all groups.

If you would like to read the article, please post a comment and I will upload it.