Medicine and Culture

Culture, and the diverse populations it presents, is changing the way physicians treat patients.

Week of October 30, 2022

What Covid Has Taught the World about Ethics (NEJM)
The COVID pandemic questions that proved most vexing and controversial involve determining the “right” course of action on critical issues like allocation of vaccines during scarcity, introducing mask and vaccine mandates, imposing travel restrictions, and the like. Policymakers appeared to waffle and debate, which lowered public trust. Simply employing the existing framework of ethical knowledge could make for faster policy decision-making and improve transparency and public trust.

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Bystander CPR for Witnessed Cardiac Arrest (NEJM)
Black and Hispanic persons were 25% less likely to receive CPR at home and 37% less likely to receive CPR in a public location when experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. These patterns were consistent regardless if the predominant neighborhood ethnicity was White, Hispanic, Black, or Integrated.