Sep 10 2024 16 mins
Episode 18: “Physicians’ Perceptions Of People With Disability And Their Health Care.”
Collection III: Disability in health sciences: the need for and benefits of inclusion
This collection features studies and testimonials that examine the current state of disability representation among health sciences students and professionals and that demonstrate how the presence of disabled healthcare practitioners and trainees benefits both patients and clinicians/trainees.
Key works in this emerging literature are gathered in this cluster that includes qualitative studies, the results of quantitative data analyses, and personal testimonials.
Title of Featured Article: “Physicians’ Perceptions Of People With Disability And Their Health Care.
Authors: Lisa I. Iezzoni, Sowmya R. Rao, Julie Ressalam, Dragana Bolcic-Jankovic, Nicole D. Agaronnik, Karen Donelan, Tara Lagu, and Eric G. Campbell
Link: https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.01452
Description: In their pioneering study, the authors’ project sought to understand physicians’ attitudes on people with disability, including physicians’ comfort treating these patients or welcoming them into their practices. Results show that many physicians lack confidence in providing equivalent quality care to disabled patients and non-disabled patients and that a vast majority (82.4%) of doctors believed that significantly disabled people have a worse quality of life–a sentiment contrary to the experiences and responses of many disabled people. Yet, encouragingly, nearly 80% of physician respondents also expressed the importance of understanding disabled patients. The authors suggest that the substantial explicit disability bias expressed by respondents is rooted in inadequate and inaccurate education about disability and disabled people in medical education and argue for improved training and evaluation of biases among key triage teams and medical decision-makers.
Producer: Zoey Martin Lockhart, Lisa Meeks
Audio Engineer: Jacob Feeman
Transcript link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rk1Kk5oJ4tetma1pumYmobiFuHrS8ERs5qxK7o9dkAA/edit?usp=sharing
Keywords: Patients with Disability / disabled patients, Ableism
Medical Education, Implicit bias, Disability attitudes, DocsWithDisabilities, Disability
Patient Care