CLEVELAND, Ohio– Dr. Gregory Hall has been a practicing physician for 25 years, he recently became co-director of the partnership for urban health at Cleveland State University, and now he’s added author to his list of titles. His book, Patient-Centered Clinical Care of African Americans, isn’t written for patients: it’s for the doctors who treat them.
“I started initially trying to educate my patients about things that they should know if they happen to see other physicians, and I realized I needed to move upstream and really address it to the provider so the providers can provide the best care.” Dr. Gregory Hall says.
According to Hall’s research, African Americans have the worst medical outcomes of any racial-ethnic group in America - including the highest mortality, the longest hospital stays, the worst compliance with medications and referrals, and the lowest trust of the healthcare system.
“When I found out that African Americans had the absolute worse outcomes in terms of a number of different outcomes. I thought you know; providers need to know.” Hall says.
It took Hall 4 years to complete the book, which is a comprehensive guide of research-based recommendations for health care providers.
“Someone needs to bring all those recommendations that are all research-based together so that when a provider sees an African American man, for example, he goes out of his way to screen for prostate cancer or goes
out of the way to spend some extra time on smoking cessation and things of that nature.” He says.
He says while a number of protocols have been established to address this dramatic difference in outcomes, providers often overlook critical symptoms in their African American patients.
“For colon cancer screening people think, 50, and it’s actually 45 for African Americans”…… “African-Americans have an increased risk for lung cancer with less smoking so exposure.”…… “While breast cancer occurs more often in whites, the mortality is much higher in blacks.” He says.
Hall says although the wide-spread acknowledgment of health disparities for African Americans, the specific scope of the problem is usually attributed to poverty or healthcare access, providers play a large role in a patient’s health outcomes.
Dr. Linda Bradley, who specializes in women’s health care, agrees.
“We, as physicians and healthcare professionals need to work with our patients, understanding their language, their experience their trials and tribulations and their assets, and what are their strengths and personal resilience.” Bradley says.
Charles Modlin, MD, the founder of Cleveland clinic’s minority men’s health center, says it’s up to every doctor and medical school student, regardless of race and age, to take pay attention to the recommendations that are in Hall’s book.
“African Americans…we only represent about 4 percent of physicians in the united states. So, this can’t be left to just us alone. we actually need to embrace and engage the entire medical community, to become aware of this.” Modlin says.
Hall says the book will act as a resource, a reminder, and a relationship builder.
You have a provider; you have a predominantly African American population like a lot of the hospitals do here in Cleveland, and in the major urban cities in Ohio, then it’s to your advantage to sort of have this resource for you.” Hall says.