Was this article written by Mr. Satcher's press secretary or a junior high journalism student? If it was a student, she'd get a big, fat F on impartiallity. One more reason why the media has a liberal bias.

FYI- WHEN AN ARTICLE DOESN'T MAKE SENSE, I USUALLY BLAME THE EDITOR NOT THE WRITER OF THE NEWSPAPER.

DAISY
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David Satcher (1998-2002)
Dr. David Satcher was the 16th Surgeon General of the United States. He was sworn in on February 13, 1998, and served a 4-year term.
Dr. Satcher served simultaneously in the positions of Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary for Health from February 1998 through January 2001.  He also held the posts of Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 1993 to 1998.
Dr. Satcher currently is a fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation.  In the fall of 2002, he will assume the post of director of the National Center for Primary Care at the Morehouse School of Medicine.  Before joining the Administration, he was President of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1982 to 1993.
Dr. Satcher served as professor and Chairman of the Department of Community Medicine and Family Practice at Morehouse School of Medicine from 1979 to 1982. He is a former faculty member of the UCLA School of Medicine and Public Health and the King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he developed and chaired the King-Drew Department of Family Medicine. From 1977 to 1979, he served as the Interim Dean of the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School, during which time, he negotiated the agreement with UCLA School of Medicine and the Board of Regents that led to a medical education program at King-Drew. He also directed the King-Drew Sickle Cell Research Center for six years.
Dr. Satcher is a former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and Macy Faculty Fellow. He is the recipient of many honorary degrees and numerous distinguished honors, including top awards from the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and Ebony magazine. In 1995, he received the Breslow Award in Public Health and in 1997 the New York Academy of Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award. Earlier this year, he received the Bennie Mays Trailblazer Award and the Jimmy and Roslyn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Satcher graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1963 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1970 with election to Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He did residency/fellowship training at

Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, UCLA, and King-Drew. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Preventive Medicine, and the American College of Physicians.
Dr. Satcher wanted to be known as the Surgeon General who listened to the American people and who responded with effective programs. His mission was to make public health work for all groups in this Nation. He not only is a champion of promoting healthy lifestyles, he is also an avid jogger and enjoys tennis, gardening, and reading.
Born in Anniston, Alabama, on March 2, 1941, Dr. Satcher and his wife, Nola, have four grown children.
February 2002
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fyi- from a conservative org.
daisy
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2002
Health Headlines
From Yahoo News
Wednesday March 20 1:33 PM ET
Racism Impacts Healthcare of U.S. Blacks: Report
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - African Americans continue to receive poorer quality healthcare compared with their white peers, and racial stereotyping by American doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers is at least partly to blame, according to a report released Wednesday by the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
The IOM is a scientific group that advises the federal government.
``Disparities in the healthcare delivered to racial and ethnic minorities are real and are associated with worse outcomes in many cases, which is unacceptable,´´ said Dr. Alan R. Nelson, former President of the American Medical Association and chair of the committee that produced the report.
The committee combed through dozens of studies that compared the healthcare delivered to American minority patients with that delivered to whites. They found that blacks--and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic--patients are less likely to receive potentially life-saving treatments such as bypass surgeries and specific medications for heart disease, kidney dialysis or transplants, HIV-suppressing medications, or disease-targeted cancer diagnostic tests and therapies.
On the other hand, minorities were more likely than whites to receive less-desirable treatments, such as limb amputation (used in advanced diabetes, for example) or removal of the testes in the case of prostate or testicular cancers.
While poorer access to doctors and healthcare facilities is a factor in these types of inequalities, the report's authors contend that subtle racism on the part of doctors and other healthcare staff plays a role, too.
``It is reasonable to assume...that the vast majority of healthcare providers find prejudice morally abhorrent and at odds with their professional values,´´ the report authors note. ´´But healthcare providers, like other members of society, may not recognize manifestations of prejudice in their own behavior.´´
This prejudice has much to do with provider's stereotyped notions of black patients' lifestyle, predisposition to illness and ability to comply with treatment, according to the report. For example, in one study, heart doctors presented with a range of patients ``were significant less likely´´ to recommend cardiac catheterization--an invasive test designed to spot blockages in the heart--for black female patients versus other patients.
And another study found that that male doctors prescribed twice the level of pain medications for white patients versus blacks.

Today's high-pressured healthcare environment may encourage racial stereotypes to enter into decisions about patient care. According to the report, when doctors have only a few minutes in which to assess patients, subtle racial biases may play a role in decisions, in the absence of more detailed information.
Blacks and Hispanics also lack access to healthcare facilities and medications, compared with whites. African-American patients are more likely to be enrolled in public-funded health plans that place more restrictions on healthcare options, and neighborhood facilities may not achieve the standards found in more affluent areas.
For example, one study found that, in the case of prescription pain medications, ``only one in four pharmacies in predominately non-white neighborhoods carried adequate supplies, compared with 72% of pharmacies in predominately white neighborhoods.´´
The pervasiveness of racism throughout American culture may create mistrust among black American patients when they enter the healthcare system, which can further damage the doctor-patient relationship. The IOM panel speculate that when patients ``convey mistrust, refuse treatment, or comply poorly with treatment, providers may become less engaged in the treatment process,´´ reducing the quality of care.
But they stress that the responsibility to erase racial inequalities in healthcare lies squarely with those in charge. First, the panel recommends that all Americans be educated to the fact that these disparities exist. Secondly, they say doctors and hospitals must adhere to treatment guidelines based on scientific evidence; not vague, inaccurate patient stereotypes.
Finally, the IOM advocates increased funding for the US Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights, created to enforce laws prohibiting discrimination within the healthcare system. ``In recent years (agency) funding has been insufficient to adequately investigate complaints,´´ according to an IOM statement.