Dr. Brick Lantz, vice president of advocacy bioethics for the Christian Medical Association, says the research for the "Racial Concordance of Black Nurses and Patients Across Hospitals" report from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is inadequate.
"Diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), they tend to have the opposite effect on racism or the intention to stop racism," he submits. "In my opinion, they actually promote racism, saying that certain races are disadvantaged when it comes to the ability to excel in any type of occupation."
Nursing Professor Eileen Lake, who led the study, says her findings "highlight a critical gap in structural competency within healthcare institutions," but Do No Harm argues the premise of racial concordance is ideologically driven and unsupported by evidence.
The medical watchdog group also argues that Penn Nursing's study is a "smear of hardworking healthcare professionals."
Dr. Lantz agrees.
"All those in healthcare professions, we are trying to take care of every individual with empathy," he asserts. "It doesn't matter their background or nationality or the color of their skin. I'm not saying prejudice doesn't exist, but in general, it's not a problem in education, and it's usually not a problem in practice."
According to four out of five of Do No Harm's systematic reviews, there is no evidence to support Penn Nursing's argument.
Still, The College Fix points out that the University of Pennsylvania is not the only school pushing the idea of racial concordance. Earlier this year, the University of California Los Angeles promoted its researchers' claim that "clinical outcomes improve when patients and surgeons share the same ethnicity."
Also, a flawed study claiming black newborn babies perform better when cared for by black doctors has been cited nearly 800 times in medical literature.
