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Take a second to imagine your heart failing.
Seba Cestaro
But the termheart failureis easily misunderstood.
Your hearts still going, but its struggling.
Yet, the ACC reports that people of color are less likely to receive appropriate medical therapy.
First, lets talk about how genetics can influence your heart failure risk.
Ancestry and race arenotsynonymous, though, since your genetic code may not perfectly align with your race.
Yourancestryrefers to, strictly speaking, traits in your genetic code that are inherited from your ancestors.
Its not as simple as heart failure is passed on genetically in certain groups, Dr. Morris adds.
But there are many other complex factors at play, including generations of systemic racism.
Does it come back to genetics?
Its very hard to separate the reasons out because they are very interconnected, Dr. Khan says.
Social determinants of health are also a big deal.
They actually play a role at every level, Dr. Khan says.
Finally, we cant ignore institutional bias and systemic racism in health care.
So where do we go from here?
This all might sound completely unfixable, but Dr. Khan and Dr. Morris both have hope.
Its not an individual-level fix or response.
It really has to come at the societal and health care system level, Dr. Khan stresses.
And we are actually starting to see some progress.
It really is becoming a priority, Dr. Morris says.
Next: We need institutional bias training, Dr. Morris says.
An algorithmic process like this could potentially help eliminate clinician bias in selecting the people to treat.
And, crucially, we need structural support for these changes.
Theres only so much we can do within medical schools and the health care system.
Much of this is a policy issue, Dr. Morris says.
Try and check that that you have a relationship with a clinician who respects you and listens to you.
