Commentary

The NEJM Pushes Discriminatory Ideology in ‘Structural Racism’ Survey

  • By Do No Harm Staff
  • March 24, 2025

The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)is distributing a 14-question survey to healthcare organizations  regarding their opinions and experiences pertaining to “structural racism.”

The survey includes questions inquiring as to the prevalence of structural racism in a provider’s organization, how structural racism impacts “care delivery,” tactics utilized in addressing structural racism, the deployment of DEI-related metrics, the presence of a safe space to discuss DEI-related concepts, and much more.

The NEJM makes clear its preferences: that healthcare organizations should treat racial groups differently in order to promote “diversity.”

For example, NEJM gives several options for organizations to “address” structural racism when asking how organizations currently go about doing so. Several of the options provided in this multiple choice question relate to intertwining personnel decisions with racial criteria, including “prioritizes hiring and promoting diverse leadership” and “collects data on racial composition of C-suite and board of directors.”

A screenshot of a computer screen Description automatically generated
Figure 1. A question from the NEJM survey.

This type of racial-quota-focused hiring is regressive and obviously detrimental to a healthcare organization’s mission to actually, you know, provide healthcare, so it’s disappointing to see this behavior encouraged by such a “respectable” publication.

The survey further asks respondents to assess their organization’s commitment to address structural racism, thereby giving the NEJM a metric to determine how committed to “the cause” the referenced organizations truly are.

Figure 2. A question from the NEJM survey.
Figure 3. A question from the NEJM survey.
Figure 4. A question from the NEJM survey.

Additionally, some of the questions and prompts appear to be an ideological screening test; for example, after asking several questions about the relationship between structural racism and care, NEJM poses the question “What are the top 2 factors contributing to whether people with access to health care become unhealthier?”

Among the options provided as answers are unsafe environments, stress, low health literacy, low prioritization of health, lack of trust in the medical system, and other.

A screenshot of a computer Description automatically generated
Figure 5. A question from the NEJM survey.

The NEJM has a long history of this behavior; in May 2023, Do No Harm organized a petition condemning NEJM’s publication of an article calling for explicit racial discrimination in medical education. The petition garnered the support of more than 1,000 health care professionals across a wide range of subfields.

A different article published by NEJM called for doctors to practice “anti-racist documentation” while another characterized “racism” as the chief culprit behind most health disparities.

And after one doctor submitted a commentary piece to NEJM in response to an article by the American Medical Association’s Chief Health Equity Officer, the Journal rejected the response.

What purpose will NEJM’s latest survey serve? That remains to be seen. But based on the presence of multiple questions at the end of the survey asking participants for their permission to use their responses for their “Insights Report,” one can make a reasonable guess.