"Troubling:" SPH-B faculty member publishes evidence of racial bias in quality of care

To physicians and researchers, the data is stark: Black patients are more likely to experience vascular disease–related limb amputation than their non-Black counterparts. While the statistics are clear, the reasons for this disparity have long been debated. And for decades, Associate Professor Corey Kalbaugh has wrestled with the dialogue around this issue.

"Outcome disparities have always been really troubling to me," Kalbaugh said. "The available research made a lot of assumptions about the causes of these disparities: ‘Black patients don’t come to the doctor, they don’t take their medicines, they have more severe disease; their atherosclerosis is different.’ So I decided to dig into the data." Discoveries by Kalbaugh and fellow researchers—including Ph.D. candidate Erika Beidelman—were recently published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Surgery.

"Implicit Racial Bias and Unintentional Harm in Vascular Care" explains that in Kalbaugh’s research, the vast majority of vascular specialists demonstrated a pro-White implicit bias.

"If there is good news to be found here," Kalbaugh said, "It is that we believe that these disparities are addressable. Health care systems can use transparent monitoring and systematic quality improvement initiatives to reduce the use of low-quality care. Insurance companies should limit—or eliminate—reimbursement of procedures like the interventions we describe in our study."

Beidelman asserted, "As a student, being part of this research has been an empowering experience in showing how research can tackle core problems in our health system. Though our results aren’t what we would hope to see occurring in our hospitals, this work provides a stepping stone for actionable change and meaningful impact."

SPH-B faculty, staff, and students make significant and groundbreaking change every day. Read all about it at go.iu.edu/48bx.