Report: AAMC’s claims that patients are better treated by doctor of same race debunked

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(The Center Square) – A new report from medical group Do No Harm debunks claims of the benefits of racial concordance, or the matching of doctors�� and patients’ races, as is proposed in an amicus brief by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Do No Harm’s director of research Jay Greene told The Center Square that "the AAMC's brief is merely an attempt to codify DEI in medicine and to further expand race-based hiring throughout the system.”

“Our report reveals the shoddy methodology behind each study cited by the AAMC and dismantles their baseless conclusions,” Greene said.

“The myth of racial concordance, disproven by several systematic reviews, only undermines the doctor-patient relationship,” Greene said.

“This report supports our mission to prevent politically motivated activists from pushing debunked racial theories that negatively impact patient care,” Greene said.

The AAMC did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment.

According to a news release, Do No Harm’s report is intended to expose the AAMC’s “role in elevating activism over evidence within its amicus brief submitted in the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case over race-based college admissions.”

The release said the brief “cites four unreliable studies to defend the discredited theory that racial concordance, in which patients are treated by doctors of the same race, improves health outcomes.”

According to the report, the AAMC and 45 healthcare organization allies claim in their amicus brief that “in controlled studies, Black physicians are far more likely than others to accurately assess Black patients’ pain tolerance and prescribe the correct amount of pain medication as a result.” 

Do No Harm refutes the four “unreliable studies” that are used to back the healthcare organizations’ claims.

Do No Harm’s news release states that the AAMC’s first cited study “wrongly suggests that white trainees are more likely than non-white trainees to hold false medical beliefs about black patients.”

“However, the study focuses on medical trainees (not independently practicing doctors), never compares black trainees to non-black trainees, never examines the treatment of black patients, and conveniently leaves out data showing non-white trainees were actually more likely than white trainees to hold those false beliefs,” the release said.

The second study cited by the AAMC “concludes that black children with appendicitis are as likely as white children with appendicitis to be given an analgesic but significantly less likely to receive an opioid,” Do No Harm said.

“This study also does not support racial concordance in pain treatment because it never examines that question,” the release stated.

Do No Harm said the third study cited by the AAMC “is only a review of research on racial differences in pain treatment.”

“Notably, it presents no original findings and fails to examine whether a physician’s race was associated with differences in the treatment of pain,” Do No Harm said.

“The fourth study finds that non-minority patients were more likely to receive guideline-recommended analgesic prescriptions than minority patients,” Do No Harm reported.

“However, it never examines whether pain treatment for black patients was any different if their physician was also black,” and neither did it “collect data on pain treatment for white patients,” the news release said.

Do No Harm stated in its report that “judges, legislators, and other policymakers often rely on leading health organizations to inform them about what medical science has to say on matters of public policy,” making unfounded claims such as found in the AAMC’s brief all the more “alarming.”

“The realization that these medical associations are no longer reliable scientific authorities is beginning to spread across top policymakers and the general public,” the report said.

“The national experience with Covid-19 was a shocking wake-up call,” the report said. “And the ideological commitment to racial preferences despite the lack of scientific support is only confirming this alarming new reality.”