Do No Harm v. University of Pennsylvania, et al.

The University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine is once again prioritizing identity politics over patient care.

Penn Medicine, the Consortium of DEI Health Educators, and WURD Radio operate the Black Doctors Directory, an advertising and marketing opportunity provided exclusively to black doctors in southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Non-black doctors are excluded from the Directory regardless of how regularly they treat black patients or how much they have worked to improve black patients’ health.

The Directory is founded on the false and thoroughly debunked premise that racial concordance, in which patients are treated by physicians of the same race, produces better health outcomes. This sows distrust between doctors and patients. 

Excluding doctors from the Directory because of the color of their skin is discriminatory, illegal, and a gross misuse of taxpayer money. That’s why Do No Harm is filing a lawsuit against the school on behalf of one of our members who is excluded from the Directory based on race, even though they regularly treat black patients in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Penn Medicine should focus on improving health outcomes for patients and recommending the highest quality doctors to do so – regardless of their race.