Name: Lucy Smith
Community/State: Robe, South Australia
School: Kingston Community School
Age/Grade: 16 Years, Year 11
Overcoming the odds – how can we push through barriers to achieve gender equality?
Overcoming the Odds of Medical Bias
It is incredible to think something meant to resemble safety and trustworthiness has been poisoned by unfairness and misjudgment. Medical bias can stem from many factors such as race, personal experience and conflict of interest. Bias can also be based on gender. Medicine is an industry where gender bias can be extremely detrimental and commonly results in unnecessary deaths.
Studies have shown that heart disease, a possibly preventable disease, is the second leading killer of Australian women after dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, typically unpreventable diseases. Why is this relevant? In 2018 American doctor, Dr. Noel Bairey Merz, found that women were more likely to die in the year after a heart attack because their regular doctor’s routine did not include a heart risk check. Only 40% of women’s routine checks include the heart risk check. She stated that women are often told to lose weight instead of receiving medication like their white, male counterparts would more likely be. Furthermore, a 2008 study by Canadian researchers showed that women have been less likely to be referred for a knee replacement surgery when presenting with knee issues. One would think that a knee replacement surgery would not be too hard to diagnose. The patient describes pain and concerns, gets x rays and continues to get referred. This is not the case all of the time. In this specific study a man and woman with known arthritic knees went to 71 doctors. The man was referred for a surgery twice as many times as the woman was.
Why is gender bias so evident in our day and age? Gender bias is ingrained historically in the field of medicine. An experiment conducted in the 1990’s highlights this well. The experiment focused on the impact of diet on estrogen metabolism and its links to breast and uterine cancer, however only male test subjects were used to determine this.
The gender bias in medicine is continually being disregarded, but the importance of addressing this bias is paramount. Spreading awareness through social media campaigns, including women in more research trials and increasing the number of female doctors are all ways to address this issue. Also, educating young doctors about the dangers of bias and how they can manage it if they encounter it in their work place is vital. This will lead to improved healthcare for women and girls in our society and better medical outcomes in the future.
References
Norton, A (2008). Gender bias seen in knee replacement surgery https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gender-bias-idUSKEN96144320080319 (Accessed 24 Aug. 2019).
Australian Medical Association, (2018). Doctors’ Relationships with Industry. https://ama.com.au/position-statement/doctors-relationships-industry-2018 (Accessed 25 Aug. 2019)
Medical Board of Australia, (2014). Good medical practice: a code of conduct for doctors in Australia https://www.medicalboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Policies/Code-of-conduct.aspx (Accessed 24 Aug. 2019)
Hamberg, K (2008). Gender bias in medicine https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2217/17455057.4.3.237 (Accessed 26 Aug. 2019)
Powell, R, Pawlowski, A (2018). Gender bias in health care may be harming women’s health: What you need to know https://www.today.com/health/gender-bias-health-care-may-be-harming-women-s-health-t133583 (Accessed 24 Aug. 2019)
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, (2019). Deaths in Australia https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/life-expectancy-death/deaths-in-australia/contents/leading-causes-of-death (Accessed 24 Aug. 2019)
Bias In Medicine: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, (2019). (online video) at: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7gn3qd (Accessed 25 Aug. 2019)