Nobody wants to name the problem, but let’s call it what it is: social injustice is part of our healthcare system. Black and Hispanic people are far more likely to get sick and die from the 10 leading causes of death due to a range of factors, including lack of access and discrimination in our healthcare system and policies. When you consider that most treatments and drugs are only tested on white males, it’s clear we’re ignoring the unique wellness needs of so many other populations. And the result of these disparities gets passed down through generations. We need to work on solutions now. This week on The Doctor’s Farmacy I sat down with Dr. Charles Modlin, Dr. Leonor Osorio, and Tawny Jones from Cleveland Clinic to talk about these issues and ways to create a new multi-cultural dynamic in healthcare. 

Dr. Charles Modlin is a Kidney Transplant Surgeon, Urologist, Executive Director of Minority Health, and the Cleveland Clinic Physician Lead for Public Health. He founded and directs Cleveland Clinic’s Minority Men’s Health Center. Dr. Leonor Osorio has been on staff at Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Hospital practicing Internal medicine since 2001. She was instrumental in the opening of the Lutheran Hospital Hispanic Clinic, which connects patients to Spanish speaking physicians. Tawny Jones is an accomplished Administrator at the Cleveland Clinic who leads clinical operations at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine.

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Here are more of the details from our interview: 

-Racial health disparity statistics and factors driving these disparities (4:37)

-The Tuskegee syphilis experiment how it continues to perpetuate distrust of the healthcare system (12:50)

-The cascading effects of racism, prejudice, stereotyping, and unconscious bias on minority health (15:47)

-Targeted food marketing to minority populations and acknowledging the reality of food injustice (19:53)

-The role of sugar and the sugar industry in driving health disparities (30:32)

-How community-based conversations and initiatives can improve health literacy and outcomes (35:40)

-The importance of prioritizing cultural sensitivity in creating health programs (42:43)

-Economic implications of the healthcare disparities crisis and incentivizing value-based healthcare (55.47)

-Multicultural specialty centers (1:01:06)

-Calling for hospitals and healthcare practitioners to give voice to our national food crisis (1:06:28)