Dr Vivienne Hau Discusses Factors Impacting Racial/Ethnic Inequities in Ophthalmological Care

Institutional racism within the medical field and the treatment of people from lower socioeconomic communities plays a large role in racial and ethnic inequities, explained Vivienne Hau, MD, clinical assistant professor with the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine.

Transcript

What are some of the root causes of racial and ethnic inequities in ophthalmological care?

Now this can be a little bit of a loaded question, but what it really comes down to is that there is much institutionalized racism within the medical field in itself. Now, people in positions of power have been making decisions that negatively impacted health of vulnerable communities for centuries. And a lot of it comes down to just how we treat some of these lower socioeconomic communities that many times are those of underrepresented minorities, as well.

And so, there's things such as housing insecurities, chronic preventable health issues, employment or insurance issues, and so these are affecting their abilities to get access to care, and also for increasing representation as physicians as well, Because if these people are not having just the basis and the foundations to excel and succeed within schooling and education, then they can't become, you know, physicians just like myself and be in those positions of power and help out.

So, because of all of that it affects those abilities to have access to care, and ultimately, to ophthalmological care, as well. And so those are some of the things that we need to look at more. We need to step away and look at the overall picture and how everything ties into things.