Justice starts with us.

In order to move this vision forward, everyone from trainees to clinicians to critical race theorists to community members must not only read and dialogue, but also act. While barely scratching the surface, the following list offers a few suggestions to various types of readers to create and practice antiracist medicine.

Trainees

• Seek out literature and research on critical race theory and antiracist research. See appendix for suggestions.

• Teach yourself to question when you hear race used in clinical medicine.

• Ask questions of those around who are using race-based medicine. Question its usage, and teach others if you can.

• Don’t use race in the problem statement of your notes or clinical presentation.

• Seek out antiracist trainings in your area or online, especially if you are white or hold other privilege. This is for your patients, fellow trainees, and other providers.

• Organize for change. Push your educators to teach antiracist medicine and push for your clinicians to practice antiracist medicine. One idea:

• Don’t use the race-corrected GFR or spirometry values. Start a campaign to have your academic hospitals remove the race correction.

Clinicians and Providers

• Seek out literature and research on critical race theory and antiracist research. See appendix for suggestions.

• Seek out antiracist trainings in your area or online, especially if you are white or hold other privilege. This is for your patients, fellow providers, and staff.

• Teach yourself to question when you hear race used in clinical medicine.

• Use your power to ask questions of those around who are using race-based medicine. Question its usage, and teach others.

• Don’t use race in your notes or clinical presentation, especially not in the problem statement.

• Organize for change. Push yourself and your peers to teach and practice antiracist medicine. One idea:

  • Don’t use the race-corrected GFR or spirometry values. Start a campaign to have your institution remove the race correction.

• Learn and use structural competency to begin to name and address the societal and structural factors that hinder patients’ ability to live to their highest level of well-being.

• Get active outside the clinic and in partnership with interdisciplinary scholars to address these structural issues.

• Help make medicine a less hostile space for both patients and providers.

Educators

• Seek out literature and research on critical race theory and antiracist research. See appendix for suggestions.

• Create a learning environment that is both safe for students and critical of race-based medicine. You must be trained in how to talk comfortably and critically about race in your classrooms and teaching settings. Seek out antiracist trainings to increase your skills and tools.

• Teach trainees in both critical race theory and the nuances of biology. Teach trainees to hold complexity and be powerful advocates for their patients.

Researchers

• Learn critical race theory and structural competency (see appendix for suggestions), and then use it to hold yourself to the highest precision in both research design and publishing. You cannot control what people will do afterward, but you can contribute to making a body of research that is rooted in antiracism and clearly spells out the implications of your findings.

• Seek out antiracist trainings in your area or online, especially if you are white or hold other privilege.

• Design and carry out research that corrects the current bad science. If the intended heuristic for using race in GFR is muscle mass, help find a marker of muscle mass or a faster way to measure it in clinic.

• Design and carry out research that measures and addresses root causes of poor health and health disparities, such as racism and structural causes.

Community-based Organizations

• Continue to form partnerships with physicians and clinics to address social and structural issues that impact well-being.

Community Members

• Question your provider’s use of race in your care. Some ideas (if you feel comfortable):

  • Ask about the race correction factor if your clinician uses a measure like GFR or spirometry.

  • Ask to see your patient record, and if race was used, ask your provider why it was relevant.

• Organize groups of patients to become patient-advocates, and get involved in the clinic’s patient advocacy board or other governing bodies.