July 15, 2005

MGH forum on disparities brings patients' voices to the forefront

During the past few years, the MGH and the City of Boston have been committed to addressing racial and ethnic-based disparities — or differences — in access to and delivery of health care. To help educate the hospital community about this issue, Peter L. Slavin, MD, president of the MGH, and the MGH Committee on Racial and Ethnic Disparities hosted “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care: A Patient's Experience with Renal Transplantation” June 27 in the O'Keeffe Auditorium. This was the third forum held, and a wide cross-section of MGH employees and staff attended.

Joseph Betancourt, MD, MPH, senior scientist at the MGH Institute of Health Policy, and Joan Quinlan, director of the MGH Community Benefit Program, co-chairs of the committee, opened the forum and introduced the special guest speakers. The panel included Robert Phillips, a recent kidney transplant recipient; Winfred Williams, MD, director of the MGH Multicultural Affairs Office; and Angelleen Peters-Lewis, RN, PhD(c), nurse manager for the MGH Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Unit. A portion of the documentary “Worlds Apart,” which featured Phillips, was shown to illustrate his experiences as an African American patient going through dialysis and waiting for an organ transplant. After years on the waiting list with no match, Phillips finally received a kidney from a living unrelated donor — his fiancee.  From left, Phillips, Williams and Peters-Lewis

Williams, who is chair of the Minority Affairs Committee of the United Network for Organ Sharing — the national body that sets policies and rules for the distribution of transplanted organs in the United States — notes that recent data from the Scientific Registry for Transplant Recipients show that African American dialysis patients are put on the waitlist for renal transplantation 26 to 80 percent less often than their Caucasian counterparts, depending upon the states analyzed. Similarly, the overall rate of first kidney transplantation for African Americans from a deceased donor is 31 to 82 percent lower than that of Caucasians.

The forum concluded with the audience participating in an engaging question-and-answer session with the panel. The program was co-sponsored by Patient Care Services, the Community Benefit Program, the Multicultural Affairs Office, the Association of Multicultural Members of Partners and the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization.