New national data reveal that deaths linked to peripheral artery disease (PAD) combined with hyperlipidemia have risen sharply over the past 25 years, with the steepest increases occurring among Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black adults. The study analyzed more than 148,000 deaths from 1999 to 2024 and found mortality climbing more than fivefold across the population, but with clear racial and geographic disparities. Researchers reported that every racial and ethnic group saw rising age-adjusted mortality rates, yet Hispanic adults experienced the fastest acceleration, followed by non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White individuals. By 2024, non-Hispanic Black adults had the highest average mortality…
Author: Disparity Matters
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming neurological care, but a new report warns that it could intensify racial and ethnic health inequities if deployed without strong protections. The authors describe AI as a “double-edged” tool—one that can speed diagnoses yet also magnify the disadvantages faced by communities already underdiagnosed and underrepresented.Researchers note that AI systems depend on large datasets, many of which fail to reflect the diversity of the U.S. population. That imbalance raises the risk that stroke assessments, seizure detection algorithms, or tumor-classification tools may perform less accurately for Black, Latino, American Indian/Alaska Native, and other marginalized groups. These same…
In a searing first-person account, physician-in-training Naa Asheley Ashitey describes planning a future pregnancy like a high-risk mission: as a Black woman who has watched the medical system harm her own mother, she anticipates spending a year preparing simply to lower her risk of dying in childbirth. Her white mentor is stunned; he has never had to imagine his partner engineering her survival in the delivery room. Ashitey notes that Black women in the U.S. are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women, even when they hold doctorates and six-figure salaries. High-profile cases…
In Texas, an already dire Black maternal health crisis is colliding with some of the nation’s harshest abortion bans, creating what one advocate calls a “state-designed disaster.” Writer and advocate raven E. Freeborn points to the death of Texas mother Tierra Walker, who died after being denied lifesaving abortion care, as the clearest sign that “Texas has manufactured a reproductive health crisis.” In their view, compounding abortion restrictions have lowered the standard of medical care “to denial, refusal, and what can only be assumed as ambivalence.”A ProPublica investigation into deaths of pregnant people denied abortions, along with a viral video…
The rapid expansion of data centers across America is intensifying health disparities in Black communities already burdened by environmental pollution. Representative Justin Pearson and Dr. Sacoby Wilson highlight how these facilities concentrate in neighborhoods with residents who face disproportionate exposure to toxic emissions.Boxtown, a Memphis community founded by formerly enslaved people, illustrates this pattern. The neighborhood hosts 18 polluting facilities, resulting in cancer rates four times the national average. The surrounding area ranks second nationally for asthma-related emergency room visits and seventh for asthma-related deaths.When xAI built a massive data center nearby, conditions deteriorated further. Researchers found nitrogen dioxide levels—a…
Significant rates of maternal morbidity and mortality persist in the United States, “alongside great racial and ethnic disparities,” and new data show how firearm access further widens those gaps during pregnancy and after childbirth. A recent study summarized in Contemporary OB/GYN reports that 46.4% of women killed were Black, even though Black women represent a much smaller share of the overall population, underscoring how lethal violence in pregnancy is concentrated in communities of color. Investigators noted that women in the study were 36.3% White and 2.2% American Indian or Alaska Native, with homicide risks layered on top of existing inequities…
Artificial intelligence tools designed to help dermatologists are failing patients with darker skin tones because the technology relies on biased databases that predominantly feature White patients, according to presentations at the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery’s 2025 Annual Meeting in Chicago.Dr. Cheryl Burgess highlighted how cultural biases have corrupted the datasets used to train AI models. Internet searches for “beautiful women” still overwhelmingly show White women despite modest improvements over the past decade, reflecting the skewed data that feeds these medical programs. A literature review published in the International Journal of Dermatology found that current AI programs perform worse at…
Artificial intelligence tools meant to advance dermatology are falling short for patients with darker skin tones due to biased training databases and inadequate representation, experts warned at the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery 2025 Annual Meeting in Chicago.Dr. Cheryl Burgess of the Center for Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery in Washington pointed to cultural biases embedded in AI systems. Internet searches for “beautiful women” still predominantly show White women despite modest improvements over the past decade. These biases carry over into medical AI models trained with insufficient images of skin of color.A literature review published in International Journal of Dermatology found…
Despite progress in lowering overall cesarean section rates in the U.S. over the past decade, striking racial and ethnic disparities persist, with minority communities bearing a disproportionate burden. A retrospective study examining 30 million births between 2012 and 2021 found that non-Hispanic Black women had the highest risk for cesarean delivery, and the disparity compared to other groups grew wider during this period. In 2021, Black individuals had a cesarean rate of 30.9%, outpacing rates for Asian or Pacific Islanders, Hispanic women, and non-Hispanic whites. Marie J. Boller, MD, who led the study, said, “What this tells me is we…
Minority communities face critical barriers to kidney transplantation, with current wait-list criteria intensifying racial health disparities in the United States. New research presented at Kidney Week highlights that expanding wait-list eligibility to consider a patient’s individual risk for kidney failure—rather than a fixed measurement of kidney function—could transform outcomes.Scientists analyzed data from a million U.S. veterans and found the standard eGFR threshold of 20 mL/min/1.73m² misses many candidates at high risk, especially among Black, Hispanic, and Asian patients. Using the Kidney Failure Risk Equation (KFRE) as a criterion, researchers saw that more minority patients—including those with diabetes or albuminuria—would gain…