“Hello, I’m looking for a black therapist. I saw your profile. I’m looking for a black guy, I need someone who can relate to me.”
Rodney Long Jr., MSSA, LISW-S, has lost track of how many times this voice message, or something similar, has been left on his work phone.
Rodney is a mental health therapist with a private practice in Ohio. He’s also biracial, and feels that is wholly irrelevant to the way he approaches his work.
“I grew up in poverty with parents in addiction,” Rodney explains. “I work with black doctors, lawyers, and teachers. A lot of times, our backgrounds don’t relate over anything except our skin color.”
In Ohio, the pressure to define and divide people based on race is coming from the top. The Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage & Family Therapist Board — which oversees critical parts of the behavioral health field in Ohio — uses discriminatory practices to select who is eligible to join the Board. Specifically, it prioritizes race over levels of expertise.
“People are pushing for therapists to put more and more weight on identity and race, and less on individuality,” Rodney says. “We’re doing our clients, and the field, a disservice by doing so. Making assumptions about who people are should not be a core tenet of counseling. I don’t bring any of that stuff into the session.”
It wasn’t always this way. “When I started in 2013, the big worry was opiates. But in 2020, with Covid and George Floyd, there was a big push to get more black people into therapy,” he remembers. “Now there are entire practices opening up under the premise of being a black therapist that reinforce a belief that there is inherent trauma among black people that only other black people can understand.”
Rodney feels this is dangerous. He’s relieved nobody told him he was a “victim” when he was a young man because he may not have worked to overcome his difficult childhood and build the life he has today.
“The idea that you can tell me that I’m black, so I’m a victim, or I carry around something, is ridiculous to me,” Rodney says.
“If you told me when I was 10 years old that I was at a disadvantage, I would not be where I am today. And that’s what worries me. We’re telling kids, young children and young men, that they are at a disadvantage—and that if someone doesn’t look like they do, that person can’t help.”
Rodney knows from experience how powerful different perspectives can be. When he was a freshman in high school, his parents were in the depths of their addictions. Without the daily support and encouragement from a teacher and a guidance counselor at the school, Rodney might not have made it to graduation.
They also inspired Rodney to go into a helping profession. “These people were the reason I originally wanted to go into education,” he remembers. “I wanted to help someone else the way they helped me.”
Rodney had missed 100 days of school in the 8th grade and worked overtime to catch up in his academics. He made it to college, where he met a professor who became a mentor and convinced him to try social work. He cheered him on all the way to graduation and they are still close today.
“Everybody has somebody they can look to and rely on for guidance and support. The problem is that we start saying things like, ‘well, you’re not black, so you don’t understand.’ Or you didn’t grow up poor, so you don’t understand,” Rodney says. “Let me tell you, none of the people who helped me out the most were from where I was from. The most influential people in my life were people who were not like me.”
Nobody was telling Rodney that he couldn’t do it. They were only telling him that he could. Rodney’s mentors put him on the path toward the most rigorous education possible. And today, for so many students of medicine and mental health, that wouldn’t be the case.
Stories like Rodney’s are exactly why Do No Harm opened its doors.
America’s future practitioners get the best training—and patients get the best care—when we put education and grit over politics and ideology.
S2E8: Dr. Tabia Lee on being fired from a college for being the “wrong kind of black woman”
Uncategorized DEI PodcastDr. Tabia Lee was hired to lead the DEI department at De Anza College. Within two weeks, she was called a “dirty Zionist” and “the wrong kind of black person” for trying to create an inclusive environment for everyone, including Jewish students. In 2023, Dr. Lee was fired from her tenure-track position. She’s now an advocate for removing toxic DEI initiatives from higher education.
Listen in via Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, or Amazon Music.
The WPATH Files Expose the Truth About the Dangers of So-Called “Gender-Affirming Care”
Uncategorized United States Gender Ideology Medical association Commentary Do No Harm StaffYou may have heard about the release of internal files from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) on March 4. The files expose the disturbing depths WPATH has gone to in its efforts to continue the dangerous, unregulated, and unscientific practices of so-called “gender-affirming care.”
The documents show that, at the hands of these “treatments,” WPATH is aware that children are developing cancer, experiencing sterilization, are adopting disordered eating, and more.
We encourage you to read the files, watch the videos, and fully digest the fact that WPATH covered up the lack of scientific evidence behind its claims in favor of advancing dangerous treatments and woke ideology.
DEI Sentiments Dominate In U.S. Hospitals (Part 2)
Uncategorized United States DEI Medical association Commentary Do No Harm StaffEarlier this month, Do No Harm posted a commentary piece highlighting a recent American Hospital Association (AHA) report. This report found that many hospitals across the United States have fully embraced DEI, including through signing the AHA’s “equity pledge” and even allocating a portion of their budgets towards DEI goals.
However, it appears hospitals’ endorsements of identity politics in medicine run much deeper than just pledges. In fact, a brand new AHA report underscores the growing influence of woke-ism in fundamentally altering hospital governance and management.
According to the AHA, more than half of all hospitals responding to an internal survey identified that their board is focused on “increase[ing] the number of diverse members” as it pertains to race, sex, and ethnicity. More than 40 percent indicate the same is true for age, and more than a quarter echo the same sentiment for gender identity. In other words, hospital boards are putting equity above merit or relevant experience in the quest for new board members.
A large portion of hospitals also indicated their organization has implemented similar diversity “approaches” in both C-suite leadership and hospital management. Similarly, more than half of hospitals are implementing a strategy to “hire individuals from historically marginalized populations”.
Unsurprisingly, the AHA is only interested in its own narrow definition of diversity that conforms to the organizations’ interests. Any comments on intellectual diversity, ideological diversity, or diversity of rural versus urban backgrounds are nowhere to be found. And, ironically, the AHA is failing to meet its own diversity standards: more than half of the AHA Board of Trustees is composed of white males; less than 40 percent are female, while just 15 percent are non-white. So much for leading by example.
For all the so-called “progress” that hospitals have yet to make, the AHA is clearly ready to do its part to enable the woke takeover of America’s hospitals. Indeed, the AHA posted a separate model case study on hospitals recruiting diverse board members. The case study includes three examples of hospitals achieving “board diversity” through a variety of mechanisms, such as hiring a search firm, networking, and even “less formal” methods of identifying prospective board members, such as “through a friendly exchange at a local restaurant.”
The AHA is also sure to emphasize how the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is “adopting health equity-focused measures” as part of “growing recognition by regulatory agencies and accrediting bodies for the demonstration of greater board involvement in equity issues and addressing health disparities.” In other words, the AHA is implying that hospitals should get on board the DEI train today—because tomorrow the government might be mandating it.
Of course, the AHA does not include any metrics to indicate governance and management diversity improves medical outcomes for patients, or even bolsters experiences for hospital employees. Rather, the opposite is true: every dollar wasted on DEI efforts to advance board equity or improve managerial diversity is a dollar that isn’t being put towards actually providing quality health care. This is the secret that DEI departments in America’s hospitals don’t want patients—or even providers—to discuss, because it undercuts their entire governance model.
One sliver of good news is that even many of America’s fully-woke hospitals are slow to embrace certain aspects of diversity targets. For example, less than a quarter of U.S. hospitals report a strategy to increase the sexual orientation diversity on their boards. Nor should they, since sexual orientation obviously has no effect whatsoever on the effectiveness of hospital governance. Indeed, the AHA’s subtle implication to the contrary could be interpreted as a form of reverse discrimination. Yet even these hospitals fail to apply the same logic to more widely-accepted diversity categories, such as race, sex, and ethnicity. Why are diversity targets appropriate in certain areas, but not in others?
Put simply, the latest AHA report is yet another sign of the slow degradation of America’s medical institutions into politicized bureaucracies. No matter which category of diversity is being considered, the more hospitals resist embracing identity politics, the better.
Not a Minority? You Need Not Apply
Uncategorized Periodical Commentary Do No Harm StaffThe “Coloring Psychoanalysts” online periodical wants your contributions—but only if you are a member of the “BIPOC” community (black, indigenous, or person of color).
Coloring Psychoanalysts describes itself as an online community periodical that “seek[s] to dismantle the ways in which psychoanalytic theory has both ignored and pathologized BIPOC people, justified and reinforced systemic oppression, and affects our practice and our communities today.”
The organization’s “About” page contains a defense of limiting “white” participants, asserting the BIPOC-only periodical is a way to “divest BIPOC time, emotional labor, and intellectual contribution from spaces that too often diminish and devalue us.” In arriving at this conclusion, Coloring Psychologists cites a 2018 article entitled “Why People of Color Need Spaces Without White People”. Indeed, the organization makes it clear they are interested in seeing “psychoanalysis shift away from a White, colonial center.”
Coloring Psychologists wants submissions, not just from writers, but from “poets, artists, dancers, musicians, and other creators” too. But if you are white, don’t bother clicking on the application form, which requires you to affirm that “I self-identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and understand that the intention of this space is to foster psychoanalytically-oriented dialogue by and for BIPOC.”
Notably, the organization relies on self-identification of race to uphold its discriminatory practices. How Coloring Psychologists deals with inappropriate cases of self-identification is unclear, but is a built-in flaw to virtually all of these types of racial screenings.
And if you are white, the organization’s response is very clear: go elsewhere. Or, as they so lovingly put it, “seek alternative spaces” for submissions. Even supposed “allies” to the BIPOC community are not welcome.
As Do No Harm has previously reported, not only are the consequences of these practices discriminatory, but they are entirely ineffective. The implied notion that psychologists should align with their patients on the basis of race rather than merit has been a consistently disproved practice. There is absolutely no evidence that having a black psychologist for a black patient—or a white psychologist for a white patient—leads to improved medical outcomes. Yet, that does not stop woke organizations from continuing to push for racial concordance in order to undermine our existing medical system.
However, in perhaps an encouraging sign of the organization’s potentially waning influence, they still have their submission page open for a project whose deadline expired more than four months ago. Perhaps limiting submissions to only self-identified BIPOC individuals has not panned out the way the organization had hoped.
Coloring Psychoanalysts was founded by clinical psychologist Meiyang Liu Kadaba, who claims to live “on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramatyush Ohlone Peoples…who were the original inhabitants of the area that includes San Francisco, CA.” That’s a very long—and very woke—way of saying she lives in San Francisco.
Frighteningly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, Kadaba has been an adjunct faculty member at the Wright Institute, a graduate school of psychology located in Berkeley, CA. She also worked in Wright’s DEI office. In other words, she is passing her politicized worldview of medicine onto the next generation of psychologists, indoctrinating them with the same toxic worldview.
However, Coloring Psychoanalysts is hardly the only entity in the medical arena to be engaging in these types of practices. From internships at medical non-profits, to admissions at major medical programs, to scholarships sponsored by private entities, Do No Harm has documented countless cases of discriminatory operations. It appears the use of blatantly racist criteria to screen-out unwanted racial groups is quickly becoming the norm. This bears a frightening resemblance to the pre-Civil Rights era’s “separate, but equal” practices used to justify the same types of discriminatory actions against black Americans.
In practical terms, locking out non-BIPOC members limits the dialogue in a critical medical field, stifles the free exchange of ideas, and places race on a pedestal above all-else. However, it is very likely that these outcomes reflect the goals of Coloring Psychoanalysts and similar organizations, rather than unintended consequences.
Whether it is Coloring Psychoanalysts or another entity, these types of racial screenings have no place in any field of modern medicine. They are relics of a discriminatory system that belong to the ash heap of history. Instead, they are unfortunately gaining traction among non-profits, colleges and universities, and private sector organizations. The sooner these inherently racist practices are repudiated and abandoned, the better.
Dr. Lucas Klein: “DEI Activists Are Coming for My Profession”
Uncategorized United States DEI American Psychoanalytic Association Medical association Commentary Do No Harm StaffPsychoanalysis, at its core, aims to understand the origin points for suffering. Dr. Lucas A. Klein wants you to know that if radical DEI initiatives collapse the field of psychoanalysis, the Holmes Commission was the origin point.
Dr. Klein is a clinical psychologist, adult psychoanalyst, former forensic psychologist, the host of Real Clear Podcast, and a visiting fellow at Do No Harm. He knows a thing or two about the human condition, and he believes the principles underlying DEI are not only illogical—they’re dangerous.
“Psychoanalysis is among the last in the field of mental health to enter this battle, and it deserves some congratulations for having held out this long. Other professions fell long, long ago,” he says.
“But DEI activists are coming for my profession, and it’s making a mockery of it. I’m not going to give up the seriousness of my field without a fight.”
In 2020, the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA) created the Holmes Commission to find evidence of racism within the association. Three years later, it released a stunning 421-page report calling for the restructuring of the entire field of psychoanalysis.
It instructed therapists to “apply an analytic lens to the matters of race, racism, and white supremacy.” It also tasked entities associated with the field to hire a DEI ombudsman and “monitor resistance to change.”
Amazingly, the authors of the report themselves admitted they don’t have any data to prove or disprove systemic racism in the field, and that the report’s findings were enhanced with the “personal experiences of commission members.”
For Dr. Klein, enough was enough. He published a pointed takedown of the report’s findings on his professional APsA listserv. It set the field ablaze for a few weeks.
“I received a torrent of private support from psychoanalysts throughout the country and throughout the world, and I’m still getting positive responses from analysts,” he says. “It’s not surprising, but it is sad they felt they had to do so privately.”
Dr. Klein expanded on the hazards of critical social justice for an op-ed in the City Journal, in which he warned against making race central to the patient experience:
Sadly, Dr. Klein is watching his warnings come to life at work. He often meets new patients who walk in the door feeling anxious about the possible politicization of their experiences.
“I’ve had patients come to me worried I’m going to view their experiences through the lens of race. I’ve had parents of teenagers worried I’m going to trans their kids,” he says. “Each went to other therapists first who brought up concepts about race and gender when they were not applicable.”
Dr. Klein is not sure that APsA will ever get back on track, but he steadfastly believes the intellectual foundation of psychoanalysis is worth saving.
“We may need to start a new organization that reaffirms classical psychoanalytic values and theories to the exclusion of modern woke ideas. Those cannot be entertained. You really can’t middle around on this,” he warns.
We couldn’t agree more.
Kansas Republicans push to ban gender-affirming care for trans minors, label it abusive
Uncategorized Kansas Gender Ideology Media MentionThree years ago Cat Poland’s son nearly died.
The Kansas mother of three told lawmakers Thursday that her now 14-year-old child attempted suicide after coming out as transgender.
She also told them that gender affirming medication, testosterone, left him “happier and healthier” than she’s seen him in years. Starting hormone therapy, Poland told The Star, wasn’t a decision her family made lightly but instead one that came after extensive therapy and detailed conversations with doctors.
Read more on The Kansas City Star.
The American Heart Association’s Discriminatory Anti-Discrimination Policies
Uncategorized United States DEI Medical association Commentary Do No Harm StaffMany organizations—including in the medical field—make assurances not to discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, age, and a variety of other factors. These types of statements are fairly commonplace in both the private and public sector.
However, what is less common is an explicit codification of discrimination included in the very same paragraph as an anti-discrimination statement. Yet, this is precisely the situation with the American Heart Association (AHA).
In one of its funding opportunities for grantees, the AHA is offering a four-year award of up to $4.4 million for organizations addressing the role of inflammation in cardiac and neurovascular diseases. In their applications, potential grantees are supposed to include requests for funding of postdoctoral fellows related to the program. Upon first glance, the idea sounds innocent enough.
In fact, the AHA assures applicants that its aim is to end the treatment of “people inequitably based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, veteran status or other factors.” But the very next sentence codifies this type of mistreatment by mandating that “at least 50% of the fellows named must be from a racial or ethnic group that is under-represented in science (Black/African American; Hispanic/Latino; Native American or Alaska Native; and/or Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander); or an LGBTQ+ person, or a woman.”
But it does not end there. The AHA goes onto require that “at least 25% of key personnel of the research team must be from groups who are under-represented in science and medicine.”
The AHA’s message could not be any more contradictory: they are against discrimination, except when they are in favor of it.
This type of reverse discrimination and racial balancing has no place in medicine, or in any related field. However, given the AHA’s long history of endorsing DEI and woke concepts, its discriminatory requirements should come as no huge surprise.
A search for “equity” on the AHA’s website brings up nearly 9,000 results, from news articles to health equity guidelines and more. Included in these results is the AHA’s “Office of Health Equity” which is supposedly dedicated to “leveraging diversity, equity and inclusion to drive the AHA’s mission to be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives.”
As part of the AHA’s Office of Health Equity, the organization has issued several position statements on “health equity, social justice and structural racism.” They are also supplemented by several policy positions held by the organization, guided by “principles for addressing structural racism through public policy advocacy”.
For example, the AHA published a more than 14,000-word report outlining a variety of positions held by the organization designed to “advance antiracist strategies”. These include several policies entirely unrelated to health or medical outcomes, such as “advance[ing] policies that support the preservation of trust in and the integrity of our electoral process” and “work[ing] to mitigate implicit and explicit bias among school staff and to examine disciplinary policies and the role of law enforcement in schools”, among others.
Also included in the report is an endorsement of “provid[ing] complementary, culturally concordant prevention services for patients and historically excluded populations.” This is an implicit and buried endorsement of racial concordance in medicine, the disproven idea that patients should see providers of the same race.
Put simply, the AHA’s embrace of politicized concepts runs wide and deep, even encroaching upon areas that are completely unrelated to health and medicine. The codification of discriminatory practices in a recent grant opportunity is merely a symptom of a much deeper problem brewing within the organization.
The AHA is certainly not alone in advancing a woke ideology or incorporating discrimination in its funding opportunities. However, the extent to which these concepts have infiltrated the organization’s mission and operations is a serious cause for concern—and one that deserves careful monitoring going forward.
S2E7: Dr. Sheldon Rubenfeld on how Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Policies Breed Antisemitism in Medicine
Uncategorized DEI PodcastDr. Sheldon Rubenfeld is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. In this episode, he discusses how his long-standing elective, Healing by Killing: Medicine during the Third Reich, was canceled in the face of antisemitic backlash. Then, just two months after the October Hamas terrorist attacks, Dr. Rubenfield’s scheduled lecture on antisemitism in medicine was canceled by school officials. Now, Dr. Rubenfeld is bravely confronting what most of his colleagues refuse to admit: That diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies breed antisemitism in medicine.
Listen in via YouTube, Spotify, or Amazon Music.
“Top Doctor” Company Castle Connolly Is Up To Their Same Old Racial Concordance Tricks
Uncategorized New York DEI Healthcare resource, Medical association Commentary Do No Harm StaffLast year, Do No Harm reported how Castle Connolly—a New York City-based company that publishes top doctor rankings—jumped on the woke bandwagon by launching their DEI initiative that pushed for racial concordance.
Racial concordance is the false belief that patients have better health outcomes after seeing doctors of their own race. It is a thinly-veiled effort to push racial segregation in medicine under the guise of advancing equity. Yet companies like Castle Connolly are back at it again, pushing racial concordance despite all the evidence to the contrary. Recently the company published their “2024 Top Black Doctors” to allegedly “honor top clinicians and enable patients to find Castle Connolly Top Doctors who have shared backgrounds and experiences.”
Unfortunately, Castle Connolly is not the only entity pushing for racial concordance. For example, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)—which represents all accredited medical schools in the United States—has wholeheartedly endorsed the concept. Other medical organizations, such as the American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics, have echoed this view.
But there’s more to come: in their press release, Castle Connolly also teased their plans to launch several other so-called “distinctions”, including “Exceptional Women in Medicine”, “Top Asian American and Pacific Islander Doctors”, “Top LGBTQ+ Doctors”, and “Top Hispanic and Latino Doctors”. Apparently, advocating de-facto racial segregation among one race is not enough for Castle Connolly—they are intent on pushing racial concordance in all racial groups equally. It bears a jarring resemblance to the “separate but equal” doctrine that has long been abandoned by American society.
However, just because an idea is increasingly popular among the medical establishment does not mean it is true.
In late 2023, Do No Harm published an exclusive report—entitled “Racial Concordance in Medicine: The Return of Segregation”—which evaluates several systematic reviews of racial concordance studies. Unsurprisingly, in nearly all of these reviews, racial concordance was not associated with any improvement in medical outcomes. And in the few instances in which a small number of academic articles suggested otherwise, these analyses typically suffered from fatally-flawed study designs.
Indeed, as Do No Harm researchers Ian Kingsbury and Jay Greene noted in their report, “the fashionable idea that doctors see patients as members of a racial group rather than as individuals fails to withstand scrutiny—and it promises a return of racial segregation.”
Make no mistake: Castle Connolly and the woke medical elite would rather side with the cherry-picked, flawed data of fringe activists pushing segregation in medicine than follow the actual evidence.
In addition, the Castle Connolly list of the Top Black Doctors is also, ironically, lacking geographical diversity. Their Top Black Doctors only hail from 30 different states, meaning doctors representing 40 percent of the nation’s states are entirely missing from the list. And among those states, there is a remarkable geographic concentration in just a few cities. For example, 20 percent of the list’s 240 doctors are from Atlanta, Georgia and Columbus, Ohio alone.
In other words, patients in need of finding a top doctor outside of a few population centers in less than two-thirds of states are completely out of luck. However, this could be interpreted as an encouraging sign that there are still many doctors that are resistant to the idea of nominating their peers to be on a racial concordance-based list.
Even more ironic, however, is that Castle Connolly’s primary search page for doctors offers no opportunity for users to filter potential medical providers on the basis of race. Distance, specialty, insurance, language, and other key factors are all optional search filters—but not race. It is almost as if race is not a relevant consideration for patients when finding a doctor!
Ultimately, patients deserve the right to choose the best doctor for them. Unfortunately, Castle Connolly and other organizations are perpetuating the myth that racial concordance should be a determining factor in finding the right doctor. Ultimately, the best doctors should be determined on the basis of their merits—not the color of their skin. The sooner that the misguided beliefs of racial concordance—which are rooted in medical segregation—are repudiated, the better.
Biracial Therapist Believes Focus on Race Hurts Patients
Uncategorized Ohio DEI Commentary Do No Harm Staff“Hello, I’m looking for a black therapist. I saw your profile. I’m looking for a black guy, I need someone who can relate to me.”
Rodney Long Jr., MSSA, LISW-S, has lost track of how many times this voice message, or something similar, has been left on his work phone.
Rodney is a mental health therapist with a private practice in Ohio. He’s also biracial, and feels that is wholly irrelevant to the way he approaches his work.
“I grew up in poverty with parents in addiction,” Rodney explains. “I work with black doctors, lawyers, and teachers. A lot of times, our backgrounds don’t relate over anything except our skin color.”
In Ohio, the pressure to define and divide people based on race is coming from the top. The Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage & Family Therapist Board — which oversees critical parts of the behavioral health field in Ohio — uses discriminatory practices to select who is eligible to join the Board. Specifically, it prioritizes race over levels of expertise.
“People are pushing for therapists to put more and more weight on identity and race, and less on individuality,” Rodney says. “We’re doing our clients, and the field, a disservice by doing so. Making assumptions about who people are should not be a core tenet of counseling. I don’t bring any of that stuff into the session.”
It wasn’t always this way. “When I started in 2013, the big worry was opiates. But in 2020, with Covid and George Floyd, there was a big push to get more black people into therapy,” he remembers. “Now there are entire practices opening up under the premise of being a black therapist that reinforce a belief that there is inherent trauma among black people that only other black people can understand.”
Rodney feels this is dangerous. He’s relieved nobody told him he was a “victim” when he was a young man because he may not have worked to overcome his difficult childhood and build the life he has today.
“The idea that you can tell me that I’m black, so I’m a victim, or I carry around something, is ridiculous to me,” Rodney says.
“If you told me when I was 10 years old that I was at a disadvantage, I would not be where I am today. And that’s what worries me. We’re telling kids, young children and young men, that they are at a disadvantage—and that if someone doesn’t look like they do, that person can’t help.”
Rodney knows from experience how powerful different perspectives can be. When he was a freshman in high school, his parents were in the depths of their addictions. Without the daily support and encouragement from a teacher and a guidance counselor at the school, Rodney might not have made it to graduation.
They also inspired Rodney to go into a helping profession. “These people were the reason I originally wanted to go into education,” he remembers. “I wanted to help someone else the way they helped me.”
Rodney had missed 100 days of school in the 8th grade and worked overtime to catch up in his academics. He made it to college, where he met a professor who became a mentor and convinced him to try social work. He cheered him on all the way to graduation and they are still close today.
“Everybody has somebody they can look to and rely on for guidance and support. The problem is that we start saying things like, ‘well, you’re not black, so you don’t understand.’ Or you didn’t grow up poor, so you don’t understand,” Rodney says. “Let me tell you, none of the people who helped me out the most were from where I was from. The most influential people in my life were people who were not like me.”
Nobody was telling Rodney that he couldn’t do it. They were only telling him that he could. Rodney’s mentors put him on the path toward the most rigorous education possible. And today, for so many students of medicine and mental health, that wouldn’t be the case.
Stories like Rodney’s are exactly why Do No Harm opened its doors.
America’s future practitioners get the best training—and patients get the best care—when we put education and grit over politics and ideology.
City of Hope’s New Thrust: ‘Infuse DEI Into Our DNA’
Uncategorized California DEI Hospital System Commentary Do No Harm StaffEmployees at the renowned cancer center City of Hope in southern California can earn a $1,000 bonus for referring job candidates who are black or Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders if they are hired, an internal hospital email discloses.
The extra money offered through the hospital’s Employee Referral Program is part of City of Hope’s push to ensure that “we infuse DEI into our DNA,” says the Jan. 27, 2023, email marked “Dear Colleagues” and signed by Joline Treanor, System Chief Human Resources Officer, and Angela L. Talton, System Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Officer.
Since the start of last year, City of Hope has broadened the definition of its “underrepresented groups” beyond “Hispanic/Latinx and Black/African American.”
“With this more inclusive definition, referrals of American Indians/Alaskan Natives and Native
Hawaiians/Other Pacific Islanders when hired will result in a higher payout to you,” Treanor and Talton write. “Successful referrals that fall within these categories who are hired into eligible positions will receive the approved employee referral bonus ranging from $500 to $5,000 PLUS an additional $1,000.”
City of Hope launched its Employee Referral Program in January 2022 “with additional incentives to help build our diverse workforce,” the two officers explain. And involving employees in the effort appears to be paying off.
“To date, your active participation in the program has generated an increase in diverse referrals of 63%. By sharing our open jobs with your network, you have made a difference that truly matters,” they write in the January 2023 email.
Broadening the group to include Native Americans, Alaskans, Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders means employees potentially can earn the extra $1,000 for helping to recruit a new employee of any race or ethnicity except Asian or white — even though census data for 2021 showed whites, Hispanics and Asians as the three most common ethnic groups among the 21,700 residents of Duarte, California, where the main medical center is located.
City of Hope also has locations in Orange County (Irvine), California, and the Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix areas.
“We are making this change in support of our Indigenous Peoples Alliance employee resource group (ERG) and to align our City of Hope definition to that of the National Institutes of Health,” the email concludes. “We believe, in addition to this being the right thing to do at City of Hope, it demonstrates the integral role our ERGs play in ensuring we infuse DEI into our DNA.”
The City of Hope location in the Los Angeles area is a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. Having pioneered research and treatments for cancer, the medical center has been ranked for more than a decade as one of America’s best cancer hospitals by U.S. News & World Report.
The slogan “Infusing DEI into our DNA” is a recurring theme at City of Hope. The phrase was central to its Diversity Week celebration from Oct. 2-6, 2023, according to emails sent to employees on Sept. 29 and Oct. 6, which were also shared with us. The week’s activities kicked off with two half-hour sessions on City of Hope’s “leadership commitment” to DEI efforts with CEO Robert Stone, Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer Debra Fields, and Talton, the chief DEI officer.
“Hear our leaders speak to the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI),” said the first email encouraging employees to register for events. The second email, outlining activities to wrap up the celebration, noted that daily videos throughout Diversity Week included some by “leaders across the system” on the topic of “DEI accountability.”
Healthcare organizations must base their hiring decisions on the qualifications of applicants, not on racial characteristics. In the same way that individuals shouldn’t be denied a job because of the way they look, they shouldn’t be given one based on their appearance. With more than 11,000 employees systemwide, City of Hope would do well to concentrate less on ideologically-driven DEI initiatives and more on its mission to provide “exquisite care, innovative research and vital education focused on eliminating cancer and diabetes.” Rather than offering employees extra money to recruit colleagues from minority ethnic groups, City of Hope’s leaders should be reminding them of the pledge on its website: “All of us are united by our desire to find cures and save lives.”
S2E6: Lindsay Bednar, the Mom Who Took on the Local School Board over DEI Initiatives and Won
Uncategorized DEI PodcastLindsay Bednar is a former teacher and a mom of two young students in one of the largest school districts in Minnesota. Over the past year, Lindsay started hearing that schools in the district were pushing unwanted ideologies onto students at all levels, from elementary to high school. All of them traced back to DEI initiatives that were overstepping boundaries and breaking trust with parents. Lindsay knew she had to speak up.
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Key States Gear Up to Advance Detransitioning Protections
Uncategorized Arizona, Florida, New Hampshire, Tennessee Gender Ideology State legislature Commentary Do No Harm StaffIn an attempt to assist individuals seeking to detransition, state lawmakers across the country are advancing legislation that would provide critical insurance-related protections.
HB1639, introduced by Rep. Doug Bankson (R-Apopka) and Rep. Dean Black (R-Jacksonville) of Florida, would require insurance companies that cover gender reassignment procedures to also provide coverage for any treatment to detransition, in addition to several other provisions of the bill. The legislation is currently moving through the legislature and has passed out of both the Select Committee on Health Innovation and the Insurance and Banking Subcommittee. Opponents of the legislation include Democratic legislators and activists, as well as insurance companies that would potentially bear responsibility for providing coverage.
Several individuals have testified in favor of the bill. For example, Aaron DiPietro, Legislative Affairs Director of the Florida Family Policy Council, noted that “Detransitioners are real and deserve protections and empowerment. And as more of these patients share their stories nationwide, the public is increasingly aware of the lifelong risks of gender medicalization. Detransitioners have often been neglected by health insurance companies and the medical establishment, despite often suffering severe and irreversible complications from treatment. Health insurance companies must be held accountable and provide at least some relief and coverage to help these hurting people find some measure of healing. After all, the insurance companies were the ones funding the original procedures that are being regretted.”
In Arizona, SB1511, introduced by Sen. Janae Shamp (R-Phoenix) would similarly mandate that insurance companies covering gender transitioning procedures also be required to cover detransitioning procedures. As Senator Shamp noted “There are dozens of medical billing codes for gender-affirming care. But there’s not one single for patients seeking to cease gender-transition therapies and reclaim their God-given gender.”
SB1511 has had over 75 individuals file in support of the bill, where it is currently pending before the Arizona Senate Health and Human Services Committee. While there has also been turnout against the bill, those filing in opposition to the legislation are more likely to be registered lobbyists compared to those filing in support of the bill. Additionally, among these registered lobbyists, several filed in opposite to the bill for multiple clients, inflating the number of those carding against the legislation.
Similarly, in Tennessee, HB2816 introduced by Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby), and companion legislation SB2396 introduced by Sen. Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville), would also require insurance entities that cover transition procedures to additionally require detransitioning procedures. The legislation imposes a similar requirement on state funded gender clinics that perform gender transition procedures to also perform detransition procedures. Both companion bills are currently being considered in committee.
And finally, while not precisely identical to the other measures, SB304 (introduced by five Senators in New Hampshire) would create a legal cause of action for medical injuries that result from certain gender reassignment procedures, while providing protections for those who pursue medical detransitioning.
These legislative efforts—and others throughout the country—are crucial attempts to both provide necessary services for individuals seeking to detransition and to hold insurance companies accountable for their actions in covering transitioning procedures that may cause irreparable and lasting damage on a patient.
In fact, several of these bills contain provisions that resemble the key tenants of the protections contained in Do No Harm’s “Detransitioner Bill of Rights”. Section 6 of the bill of rights model legislation calls for a “right to insurance coverage” that includes, among other provisions, coverage for detransitioning procedures.
Policymakers across the country can consider critical insurance protections—such as those contained in the legislation being considered in Florida, Arizona, Tennessee, and elsewhere—to help protect individuals seeking to detransition.
Wanted: Black Interns Only?
Uncategorized Washington DC DEI Research institutions Commentary Executive Do No Harm StaffThe incorporation of racial bias and race-based admissions into medical internships is, unfortunately, alive and well. A perfect example of these types of woke initiatives can be gleaned from the “GROW RegenMed Internship Program” sponsored by the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM).
This internship program allegedly provides “crucial, early-career paid opportunities in the regenerative medicine sector for Black undergraduate and graduate students.” In fact, the very first eligibility requirement listed on the internship application is that “Interns must identify as Black/African American.”
ARM’s GROW RegenMed Internship Program was originally launched in 2021 with 17 inaugural interns. According to a press release at the time, the internship program was the product of ARM’s “Action for Equity Task Force” formed “in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.”
ARM claims to be the “leading international advocacy organization championing the benefits of engineered cell therapies and genetic medicines for patients, healthcare systems, and society” representing “more than 400 members across 25 countries”. The organization is structured as a 501(c)4 organization, meaning it is designated as tax-exempt by the IRS. In 2022, the organization generated more than $15 million in revenue and recorded nearly $14.5 million in expenses, including roughly $620,000 in compensation to its outgoing CEO.
ARM is not the only organization incorporating racially-based admissions or hiring programs in recent years. Do No Harm previously published an exclusive report highlighting how racial, ethnic, and gender-based factors were growing in prevalence at medical schools, such as the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Similarly, a Do No Harm analysis of the 2024 American Medical College Application Services (AMCAS) reported how identity politics were seeping their way into decisions related to the acceptance of candidates. And, perhaps most notably, earlier in 2024 Do No Harm agreed to settle its lawsuit brought against Vituity’s Bridge to Brilliance Program–an initiative that incentivized black doctors, including through $100,000 sign-on-bonuses—after the company ended its incentive program.
Additionally, Do No Harm has filed multiple complaints with the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) Offices of Civil Rights (OCR) regarding similar discriminatory practices in the medical field. In 2023 alone, Do No Harm filed 150 federal civil rights complaints with the DOE and HHS OCRs, resulting in 40 federal civil rights investigations. Several of these investigations resulted in favorable decisions to remove discriminatory practices, whereas others led to the institutions of higher education quietly scrubbing their websites of the questionable programs. As was the case with Vituity and these OCR complaints, ARM’s internship program raises serious questions about compliance with federal civil rights laws, equal protection, and even the Affordable Care Act. At best, however, the program is a case-in-point example of how woke ideology has deeply infiltrated the medical field. Other medical organizations would do well to avoid following ARM’s lead. Instead, candidates for internships should be selected on the basis of their merits, not their racial or ethnic background. Do No Farm Founder Dr. Goldfarb put it best: “Patients want and deserve the best doctors and the best medical care regardless of skin color or the racial makeup of their physician.”
Johns Hopkins DEI Officer and AAMC Are Aligned on the Definition of “Privilege”
Uncategorized Maryland DEI Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Medical School Commentary Do No Harm StaffThe Johns Hopkins University Chief Diversity Officer Dr. Sherita Hill Golden is under fire for sending an email that labels all white people, males, and Christians (among others) as beneficiaries of “privilege.” Turns out, she was simply taking cues from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
The definition used by Golden almost perfectly mimics the AAMC’s definition of privilege. Screenshots indicate that the language was lifted without attribution, though it is possible that it appears somewhere else in the email.
Golden’s definition adds “cisgender people” (i.e., anyone who is not transgender) to the list of “privileged classes” and changes a few words in the first paragraph, but otherwise lifts language directly from the AAMC. The AAMC’s definition tracks with their commitment to identity politics and woke radicalism. For example, the organization—which oversees the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and cosponsors the organization that accredits all medical schools in the United States— encourages medical schools to implement DEI policies and surveys them about their adherence to such policies. Indeed, it’s no coincidence that the same definition of “privilege” is also peddled by the Emory University School of Medicine.
Fish rots from the head down. Restoring medical education to focus on rigor and excellence instead of identity and activism requires dramatic changes at the AAMC and other important gatekeeping institutions.
S2E5: Dr. Roy Eappen on How “Gender-Affirming” Care is Hurting American Children
Uncategorized Gender Ideology PodcastWhile Europe pulls back from so-called “gender-affirming care,” the United States keeps pushing the ideology on its citizens. Dr. Roy Eappen, an endocrinologist certified by the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, wants to know why America is moving in the wrong direction and ignoring the science. He believes the “mental and physical health of American children are now at risk.”
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Do No Harm Physician Member Pens Letter to the Editor in Naples’ News-Press
Uncategorized Florida DEI News Media Commentary Do No Harm StaffIn a letter to the editor titled “Unwarranted charge of systemic racism,” Do No Harm member Dr. James Lally responded to claims of bias causing health disparities in a regional publication’s article.
We thank Dr. Lally for his support, and for highlighting the facts surrounding the oft-repeated narrative related to so-called “implicit bias” in healthcare.
Hospice and Palliative Care Credentialing Center Prioritizes DEI and Belonging over Merit and Competency
Uncategorized United States DEI Hospice, Nursing organization Commentary Do No Harm StaffHospice and palliative nurses care for some of the most complex patients and their families during a time when they are at their most vulnerable. Because of the multifaceted nature of their medical conditions, these patients depend on the clinical knowledge and skills of their nurses. But “the premier national credentialing organization” that certifies these nurses aims to prioritize identity politics over merit with a new strategy.
The Hospice and Palliative Care Credentialing Center (HPCC), which offers specialty certification exams for advanced practice nurses, registered nurses, pediatric hospice and palliative nurses, licensed practical/vocational nurses, and nursing assistants, prides itself on “advancing expert care in serious illness through state-of-the art certification procedures. HPCC recently announced its “Multiyear Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Strategic Initiatives,” which aims to enshrine DEIB within its organization by “identifying internal and external barriers to achieving certification and providing opportunities to alleviate disparities and remove systematic biases.”
Those initiatives included the formation of a DEIB task force in 2023, made up of individuals “passionate about a culture and processes prioritizing DEIB.” In a recent letter to certification holders, HPCC board president Larry Fabrey, PhD wrote, “The [DEIB] task force is making recommendations to the board that will impact the appropriateness of all aspects of HPCC certification, from initial contact with prospective applicants through recertification.”
The inspiration for this initiative came from a 2022 article in Nursing Outlook, which hypothesizes standardized testing historically impeded education and career attainment for members of underrepresented minority groups. They specifically looked at the National Council Licensure Exam (NCLEX) – an exam all new graduates in the United States must take to determine if they are deemed safe to practice as a nursing professional. The article indicates nursing organizations have not published data needed to “evaluate/refine the NCLEX-RN from a DEI perspective.” “Preliminary nursing studies and data from other professions indicated disparities in testing outcomes,” the authors lament. Noticeably missing is a concern for a merit-based licensure process.
In response, HPCC launched a performance analysis of its certification exams with a review of disparities in pass rates based on race, ethnicity, and gender over a 3-year period. To date, the full report of these findings is not available. However, HPCC asserts their initial findings indicate a racial, gender, and ethnic gap in exam pass rates, with a commitment to reduce pass rate disparities among these groups.
The HPCC outlined other strategies in their notice to certificate holders and members, including:
The hospice and palliative nursing certifications are some of the most challenging and rigorous credentialing exams in the profession. They require knowledge of multiple disease states, extensive pathophysiology, and caring for a patient at the end of life. It has traditionally been a prestigious, merit-based certification that palliative and hospice nurses are proud to display. The initiatives proposed by HPCC beg the question: How will they ensure excellence remains the top priority in the certification process?
This is a disheartening trend among nursing organizations that prioritizes DEI over merit, activism over healing, and appeasement over fidelity to the profession. For current HPN certification holders, it is insulting to realize that the work done to reach this accomplishment is minimized by ideologically motivated initiatives that have no credible evidence to support them. Even worse, it is heartbreaking for patients and families, who need the best, most qualified nurses at the most vulnerable times of their lives. Nurses – who are repeatedly ranked as members of the most trusted profession in the country – must act to return their professional organizations to its main purpose: Providing the best possible care to all patients.