How a colorblind health care system results in Black death

By KHALIL THOMAS, courtesy of thegrio.com OPINION: Inequities in health care — from devices that don’t consider darker skin tones to our exclusions from trials and studies — require that we ask questions at every level of our health care system to avoid unnecessary deaths.  Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. If you’re Black and have ever had a vitamin D test, chances are you’ve been diagnosed as Vitamin D deficient. And chances are your diagnosis was wrong.  Understanding why so many of us are misdiagnosed requires a broader understanding of the evolution of our health care system and the diagnostic tools it relies on.  You’ve probably heard about the Tuskegee experiment where the cure for syphilis was withheld from Black men for decades so doctors could study the effects of the untreated disease.  You may also know of the controversy surrounding the testing of contraception techniques on Puerto Rican women.  These and similar incidents are often cited as catalysts for the distrust Black and Latino communities have for the health care system and our ultimately low enrollment in clinical studies and trials.  However, our exclusion from studies and trials...