Hello! Below is a selection of the latest research and updates related to Black women’s health, with a specific focus on health disparities and inequities impacting Black women.

NPR: Sickle cell gene therapies roll out slowly

Sickle cell patients are facing difficult decisions around the newly-approved gene therapies to treat the disease. Treatment costs between $2 million and $3 million per patient; there are possible long-term risks; and the treatment itself can be grueling and complicated.

Over at STAT News, an article on the creative ways maternal mortality is being addressed in Louisiana by fostering mental health – including equipping OB-GYNs with the skills to provide mental health care to their patients; providing insurance coverage for doula care; and offering mental healthcare through home and virtual visits.

Welcome! Below is a selection of the latest research and updates related to Black women’s health.

American Cancer Society launches major study of Black women’s health

The American Cancer Society has launched VOICES of Black Women, a study enrolling over 100,000 Black women between the ages of 25 and 55. The largest study of its kind, it will focus on behavioral and environmental cancer risks and outcomes, to better understand how the lived experiences of Black women may affect their cancer risk or mortality.

A new discovery has been made toward finding a cure for lupus

Researchers at Northwestern Medicine and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have identified a cause for lupus – a cellular defect that appears to drive the disease process. Their study shows that reversing the defect may reverse the disease.

Welcome! Below is a selection of the latest research and updates related to Black women’s health.

U.S. Government Issues Guidance Prohibiting the Practice of Performing Sensitive/Intimate Examinations Without Consent

In a huge milestone for patient consent, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance requiring medical providers to obtain patient’s written consent before any intimate examinations, particularly if they are done on patients under anesthesia. Yale University bioethics researchers found that Black patients are four times more likely than white patients to report having received unconsented pelvic or prostate exams.

“Informed consent includes the right to refuse consent for sensitive examinations conducted for teaching purposes and the right to refuse to consent to any previously unagreed examinations to treatment while under anesthesia,” noted the letter.

A study of patient portal responses indicates discrimination in healthcare

A new study found that when patients belong to minority racial and ethnic groups, their patient portal messages to their provider were de-prioritized; they were less likely to receive a physician response and more likely to receive a response from a nurse.

Hi! Thanks for being here.

Below is a selection of the latest research and updates related to Black women’s health. Just as important as these studies and reports are the lived experiences of Black women, which are valid evidence in and of themselves. These studies often confirm what we already know, because we are living and experiencing it.

At Miami conference, presentation connects racial disparities in treatment and care with Black women’s drastically higher rate of dying of breast cancer

At the 2024 Miami Breast Cancer Conference this month, radiation oncologist Dr. Reshma Jagsi presented on disparities in breast cancer treatment for Black women. Noting that Black women in the U.S. have a death rate from breast cancer that is 40% higher than that of white women, she detailed how these disparities might come from specific racial disparities in care and treatment, such as Black women’s likelihood of receiving less efficient and more toxic radiotherapy treatment regimens. “In order to respect human dignity, we cannot allow these disparities to persist,” Jagsi said.

New software to combat health inequities is being rolled out

A health equity software program called Truity has been designed to help combat bias,  institutionalized racism, and the resulting inequities in patient care. It’s used in real time by physicians, helping to guide their decisions in patient care and treatment. Mayo Clinic and Morehouse School of Medicine are among the institutions beginning to use the platform.

Here’s the latest selection of research and updates related to Black women’s health:

Revealing Disparities: Health Care Workers’ Observations of Discrimination Against Patients

The Commonwealth Fund has released the results of a study on discrimination against patients in health care settings. It shows that nearly half of all health care workers have witnessed this discrimination; workers at healthcare facilities with mostly Black or Latino patients witness discrimination at higher rates; and half of healthcare workers say racism against patients is a major problem. The report includes recommendations for change.

Potential link between high maternal cortisol, unpredicted birth complications

A study in Psychoneuroendocrinology indicates that pregnant patients with higher cortisol levels also had higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression – and these higher cortisol levels were also linked to higher levels of unpredicted birth complications during pregnancy and in the early postpartum period. This has implications for the maternal mortality crisis disproportionately impacting Black women in the United States.