The Donald N. Medearis Jr. Lecture

Keisha S. Ray, PhD
Assistant Professor, McGovern Center for Humanities & Ethics
Director, Medical Humanities Scholarly Concentration, McGovern Medical School, UT Health Houston

Abstract: Clinical education often uses statistical information as a general starting point for patient care, in hope that it can be the beginning of diagnosis, treatment, and suitable health outcomes. But statistics can be misleading, particularly when the patient is from a background often marginalized in medicine and when the story of their health contradicts the statistical information that becomes a normal part of clinicians’ medical knowledge. How should clinicians balance trusting the stories their Black patients tell about their health with the statistical information they have come to rely upon in order to quickly and properly treat this often mistreated racial group of people?

Co-sponsored by the Center for Bioethics & Health Law and Department of Pediatrics, with support from the Donald N. Medearis Jr. Family Fund