The American College of Emergency Physicians Chooses DEI Activism Over Evidence-Based Medicine

Do No Harm has spent the past several years exposing the lack of evidence behind narratives used to push harmful DEI in medical schools and healthcare more generally. Unfortunately, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is the latest to platform these talking points. 

ACEP Now, the official publication of ACEP, published an opinion article earlier this month by Dr. Jayne Kendall titled “Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter in Medical Education,” which argued against the EDUCATE Act and for DEI efforts in medical schools. ACEP has previously gone on the record opposing the legislation as well.

The EDUCATE Act, which Do No Harm has endorsed, was introduced by Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) in March. Specifically, the bill would defund DEI programs that encourage racial discrimination, defund medical schools with DEI offices, and require accreditors to ensure they do not encourage DEI initiatives.

The opinion article argues that this legislation would hinder efforts to improve “health equality” and that DEI efforts are essential to positive health outcomes. In doing so, the article makes reference to numerous unsubstantiated theories. 

For instance, the article gestures favorably toward the idea that “racial concordance” would improve minority patients’ health outcomes. This idea proposes that patients have better health outcomes after seeing physicians of the same race.

“Literature has demonstrated that when patients seek treatment from individuals of their own race or ethnicity, they are more likely to take their prescriptions and engage in prevention services,” the article reads. 

But existing research does not support the idea that racial concordance improves health outcomes. As a Do No Harm analysis of the evidence has shown, “four of five existing systematic reviews of racial concordance in medicine show no improvement in outcomes.”

In short, ACEP is publishing a political narrative that lacks evidential backing.

However, the mistakes do not stop there; the article also cites a paper published in the Journal of the National Medical Association in 2019 titled “Diversity improves performance and outcomes.” While the paper has been extensively cited to buttress arguments supporting DEI in healthcare, its contents don’t actually deliver on its title’s promises, as Do No Harm Chairman Dr. Stanley Goldfarb previously demonstrated.

Most of that paper focuses on outcomes in areas unrelated to medicine; only three of the 16 studies the paper examines to draw its conclusions have to do with diversity in the medical field. Moreover, the studies it examines don’t show that diversity improves health outcomes at all.

“So, many articles that claim that diversity improves patient outcomes cite a paper with an intriguing title that claims a result that does not exist,” Goldfarb wrote. “The ‘evidence’ in favor of such claims proves to be a shell game.”

While a medical association opposing efforts to rein in DEI is troubling in itself (though predictable), it’s more disturbing to see such a marked departure from evidence-based medicine. 

But if anything, this is further confirmation that Do No Harm and like-minded organizations are on the side of the evidence.