General Interest: You, Me and Them - Experiencing Discrimination in America - Scientists Work To Overcome Legacy of Tuskegee Study, Henrietta Lacks
By: Rob Stein, NPR
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

This article gives us good food for thought. That is, what are we doing as Standardized Patient Educators to take a stand for equality in health care? Are we creating SP cases that represent all people of various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds? Or, are we only creating cases that are easier for us to cast based on our current SP pools?

        In this piece, author Rob Stein of NPR’s “All Things Considered” reports on a new landmark longitudinal research effort that aims to engage 1 million participants of all ethnicities to improve our ability to prevent and treat disease based on individual differences in lifestyle, environment and genetic make-up.” As revealed in the piece, there are still many African-Americans who are skeptical of such studies due to a long history of discrimination in health care. As Stein reports, “medical research has a long, troubled racial history. One example is the Tusgekee study… Another example is the case of Henrietta Lacks.” What can we do as Standardized Patient Educators to co-create a future of equality and trust in health care? Read on for some insight into some of the “obstacles that prevent minorities from participating in medical research.” Read the full article at NPR here.

Publications Committee Mission: “To bring high quality reporting of current research, trends, techniques and information regarding SP methodology and other relevant industry articles to the attention of the membership through the web-based ASPE eNews blog.”

Please provide comments, questions or suggestions about the ASPE eNews Blog here.