By Sara Heath, Patient Engagement HIT, November 12, 2020
The American Heart Association (AHA) has issued a Presidential Advisory calling out institutional racism as a cause of premature death from cardiovascular disease, underscoring the problems of racial health disparities, implicit bias, and weathering medicine.
The Advisory, published in AHA’s medical journal Circulation, called out racism by name and asserts for better antiracist practices in medicine. Such practices include work to build cultural competence, to address implicit bias, and to drive equity in healthcare.
“With this advisory, the American Heart Association reiterates its unequivocal support of antiracist principles. We are going beyond words to take immediate and ongoing action to accelerate social equity. Every person must have the same opportunity for a full, healthy life,” Mitchell S. V. Elkind, MD, MS, FAAN, FAHA, president of the American Heart Association, wrote in the Advisory, said in a statement.
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