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Oni Blackstock: It’s dangerous to have physicians in academic medicine without a fundamental understanding that the social determinants of health are the primary drivers of health outcomes
Dec 2, 2023, 16:30

Oni Blackstock: It’s dangerous to have physicians in academic medicine without a fundamental understanding that the social determinants of health are the primary drivers of health outcomes

Oni Blackstock, Assistant Commissioner for the Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control for the NYC Health Department, shared a post by Jeffrey Flier on X/Twitter:

“It’s dangerous for patients and their communities to have physicians esp. those in leadership in academic medicine without a fundamental understanding that the social determinants of health (which are shaped by systems such as racism) are the primary drivers of health outcomes.

Part of ‘medical expertise’ is, in fact, having a fundamental understanding of the social and structural determinants of health and how physicians can recognize and respond to them.
Dr. Helena Hansen and Jonathan Metzl’s paper below. ‘Structural Competency is the capacity for health professionals to recognize and respond to health and illness as the downstream effects of broad social, political, and economic structures.'”
Quoting Jeffrey Flier‘s post:
“For a medical society, or a medical school, to prioritize ‘social justice’ over medical expertise is to declare themselves unfit for their professional roles.”

Source: Oni Blackstock/Twitter and Jeffrey Flier/Twitter