Racial and ethnic minorities in the United States are 20% to 30% more likely to receive incorrect diagnoses than their white counterparts, according to new research published in JAMA Internal Medicine and BMJ Quality & Safety. The findings expose a critical gap in healthcare quality that affects an estimated 12 million American adults each year.
dicine and lead author of the BMJ study, called these disparities “significant and inexcusable.” Nearly one in four hospital patients who suffered harm or died had experienced a diagnostic error, with approximately 795,000 patients annually dying or becoming permanently disabled due to misdiagnosis.
The consequences prove particularly severe for minority mothers. Maternal mortality among racial and ethnic minorities has surged in recent years, with minority mothers dying at 2.6 times the rate of non-Hispanic white mothers. Jennifer Lewey, co-director of the pregnancy and heart disease program at Penn Medicine, noted that minority women with childbirth-related heart failure typically receive diagnoses later, allowing their conditions to deteriorate.
Language barriers and cultural differences contribute significantly to these disparities, compounded by unconscious biases among healthcare providers working under demanding schedules. Medical literature predominantly illustrates diseases through the lens of non-Hispanic whites, further hindering accurate diagnosis for patients of color. Singh, a researcher at Houston’s Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, emphasized that misdiagnosed patients repeatedly report the same concern: “The doctor didn’t listen to me.”
See: “Study: Minority Patients Significantly More Likely to Receive Misdiagnosis” (March 19, 2024)