The racial gap in health care

Listen 00:48:43

Guests: Ana Núñez and Edith Mitchell

The overall health of Americans has improved dramatically over the years. We’re eating healthier foods, we’re getting more exercise, we’ve gotten better at early diagnosis of disease, treatment is more targeted, and we’re living longer. Yet there still exists vast differences between white and African American and Latino patients when it comes to health outcomes and health care. Black women tend to fare worse when it comes to breast cancer. The same is true for black men with prostate cancer. Fewer minorities are enrolled in clinical trials. And a new study shows that minorities and poor people wait longer to receive care. Two local physicians, Edith Mitchell, clinical professor at Jefferson University, director of the Center to Eliminate Cancer Disparities at Thomas Jefferson University’s Kimmel Cancer Center and president of the National Medical Association, and Ana E. Núñez, professor of medicine and associate dean of urban health equity, education and research at Drexel University School of Medicine have devoted their careers to studying racial disparities in health care, why they persist and what we can do to change the status quo. They join Marty in the studio to explore this complicated issue.

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