How do patients’ racial, ethnic, gender, LGBTQ+ status, religious, and socioeconomic status impact access to healthcare, and treatment within the healthcare system?

The Story Behind the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks: science must right a historical wrong (from the scientific journal Nature)

Race and Socioeconomic Status Independently Affect Risk of Major Amputation in Peripheral Artery Disease (peer-reviewed research in the scientific journal, Journal of the American Heart Association)

We know from decades of peer-reviewed, evidence-based research, that disparities exist in healthcare that are not accounted for by socioeconomic status alone. [A recent example comes from the COVID-19 pandemic, where evidence shows that racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented among numbers of COVID-19 exposures, severe illness, hospitalization, and deaths -see the CDC, December 2020 (Links to an external site.)] It’s important to remember that these disparities are well-documented (especially among racial and ethnic minorities) – they are not opinions or anecdotes. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/racial-ethnic-disparities/index.html

1. How do patients’ racial, ethnic, gender, LGBTQ+ status, religious, and socioeconomic status impact access to healthcare, and treatment within the healthcare system?
2. Henrietta Lacks died in 1951, but her cancer cells are still alive (and being profited from) today. What changes have occurred that regulate human medical research studies?