Dr. Neil Powe on Rethinking Race and Ethnicity in Biomedical Research

New Recommendations on the Use of Race and Ethnicity Categories in Medicine Aim to Transform How Scientists Use These Concepts

ARC Core Faculty member, and chief of medicine at the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, Neil Powe, MD, MPH, MBA, penned a recent call for accountability in research.

As lead author of Race and Ethnicity in Biomedical Research: Changing Course and Improving Accountability, Dr. Powe was joined by Ruqaiijah Yearby, JD, MPH and M. Roy Wilson, MD, MS, in considering how a recent report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine addresses the problematic use of race and ethnicity in biomedical research.

The authors highlight five concerted actions to create meaningful progress field-wide: creating consistent standards, improving documentation in research proposals, enhancing education for researchers, implementing review standards at institutional review boards, and requiring adherence to these principles by funding organizations. These actions aim to improve quality in scientific research especially while addressing persistent health inequities.

"Implementing evidence-based standards for race and ethnicity in biomedical research isn't just about scientific accuracy,” writes the team, “it's about ensuring that medical advances benefit all patients equitably while building greater trust between healthcare systems and historically marginalized communities," write Dr. Powe and his co-authors.

As medical technology advances, particularly with AI-driven healthcare tools, getting these standards right becomes increasingly critical in preventing the perpetuation of persistent biases and health inequities in next-generation medicine.

Read the whole viewpoint here.