History of Racism in U.S. Healthcare: Root Causes of Today’s Hierarchy and Systems of Power

This was the inaugural event in the National Health Equity Grand Rounds series, History of Racism in U.S. Healthcare: Root Causes of Today’s Hierarchy and Systems of Power. This event highlighted the root causes of present-day health inequities by tracing the social, economic, political, geographic, and environmental forces that shape opportunity for health in the United States. Keynote speaker Harriet A. Washington, MA, author of Medical Apartheid, explored the history of structural inequities in health care and unethical medical experimentation followed by a panel conversation moderated by American Medical Association (AMA) Chief Health Equity Officer Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH, and featuring Rupa Marya, MD; David Ansell, MD, MPH; and Jack Resneck, Jr., MD.