Ethnic and Gender Disparities in Rheumatology Care: A Call to Action

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Ethnic/racial and gender disparities remain deep-rooted in medicine and rheumatology today. In this episode and in what is one of the most pertinent topics of our times, we discuss and highlight the disproportionate burden of rheumatic diseases and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in ethnic minorities and the gender disparities observed in rheumatology care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

How can rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals, in coalition with the patient community, address the issue of potential bias and the existing health disparities?

Our featured guests are Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman, MD, DrPH, and Candace H. Feldman, MD, MPH, ScD, the authors of a recent article published in Arthritis and Rheumatology on the urgent action needed with regard to the widening disparities in patients with rheumatic diseases during COVID-19. 

Included in this episode are also inputs from a patient with lupus affiliated with the Lupus Foundation of America and Pastor Chisa Nosamiefan of the Labalaba Foundation, a lupus awareness and advocacy organization in Nigeria.

Featured Guests

Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman, MD, DrPH, is the Solovy-Arthritis Research Society Research Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She is a doctoral trained epidemiologist and a practicing rheumatologist for Northwestern Medicine with more than 33 years of experience in clinical research in lupus. Dr Ramsey-Goldman’s areas of expertise and work include examining health disparities in patients with lupus with kidney, bone, and heart involvement and working with communities as part of community and academic partnerships for the Roadmap for Education and Access to Care for Chicago Hispanic Lupus (Reach Lupus) and the Lupus Conversations project to improve awareness of lupus and participation in clinical trials for African-American populations in Chicago and Boston.

Candace H. Feldman, MD, MPH, ScD, is a practicing rheumatologist, social epidemiology researcher, associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and associate professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston.