ADVANCE Weekly Roundup: Physicians’ perceptions can create health care disparities

Did you know that more than sixty-one million Americans have disabilities? Although legislative actions and conversations about the impact of living with disabilities are increasingly common in workplaces and social places, a study by Iezzoni et al. (2021) identified physicians’ perceptions of people with disabilities contributes to health care disparities.  In a small national study, 82% of physicians perceive a worse quality of life for individuals with disabilities.  Only 40.7% were “very confident about their ability to provide the same quality of care to patients with disability.”  The educational foundations for equitable inclusion begin in our classrooms. This research reveals the importance of including diverse cultural competencies within STEM education. 

Today’s feature was shared with us by the Advocates and Allies Advisory Board. If you have an article you think we should feature, please email it to advance-mtu@mtu.edu and we will consider adding it to the ADVANCE Weekly Roundup.

The ADVANCE Weekly Roundup is brought to you by ADVANCE at Michigan Tech, which is an NSF-funded initiative dedicated to improving faculty career success, retention, diversity, equity, and inclusion. To learn more about this week’s topic, our mission, programming efforts, and to check out our growing collection of resources, contact us at (advance-mtu@mtu.edu) or visit our website: www.mtu.edu/advance.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *