Why we need more Black patient advocates

Decades after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, health outcomes for Black Americans continue to be poorer than for non-Hispanic, white Americans. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2021 life expectancy at birth for Black Americans is 70.8 years, with 74.8 years for women and 66.7 years for men. For non-Hispanic white Americans, the projected life expectancy is 76.4 years, with 79.2 years for women and 73.7 years for men. The death rate for Black Americans is generally higher than for white Americans from ailments such as COVID-19, heart disease, stroke, cancer, asthma, influenza and pneumonia, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and homicide. The experts point to a lot of reasons behind these numbers: access and affordability of health care; a history of mistrust in the health care system by Black people; inequities in income and education; environmentally hazardous businesses and facilities located in Black neighborhoods. We also have a health care workforce that has too few Black professionals. In fact, only about 5.7% of physicians in the United States identify as Black or African American, according to the latest data from the Association of American Medical Colleges — well below the estimated 12% of the U.S. population that is Black...