Race is widely used across clinical medicine, research, and education, yet its meaning and application often remain poorly defined and insufficiently interrogated. This Grand Rounds examines the historical and sociopolitical construction of race, critiques its persistent use as a biological proxy in clinical algorithms and medical training, and explores how such practices shape diagnostic reasoning and contribute to health inequities. Drawing on empirical evidence and clinical examples, this talk proposes a framework for race-conscious medicine that more accurately reflects the role of structural racism in shaping health outcomes and guides more equitable clinical practice.
Learning Objectives: After this webinar, attendees will be able to:
- Reframe race in clinical medicine: Distinguish race as a social and political construct rather than a biological determinant, and critically evaluate how its misuse shapes clinical decision-making, medical education, and research.
- Identify mechanisms of health inequity beyond biology: Analyze how structural racism—through political, socioeconomic, and environmental forces—produces measurable disparities in morbidity and mortality, and recognize why biologic explanations are insufficient.
- Apply race-conscious clinical practice: Develop actionable strategies to move from race-based to race-conscious medicine, including recognizing race as a risk marker (not a risk factor), interrogating biased algorithms, and improving patient-centered, equitable care.
This is an event of the Office of Academic Clinical Affairs (OACA), hosted by the Center for Bioethics, and co-sponsored by the following U of MN Units: Business Advancement Center for Health (BACH), Minnesota Carlson; Center for the Study of Political Psychology, College of Liberal Arts; Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies (RIDGS), College of Liberal Arts; College of Pharmacy; Community-University Health Care Center (CUHCC), Office of Academic Clinical Affairs; Medical School; Program in Health Disparities Research, Medical School; School of Dentistry; School of Nursing; School of Public Health.
Speaker(s)
Jennifer Tsai, MD, M.Ed, Department of Emergency Medicine, Kaiser East Bay; Faculty Member, Joint Medical Program, UCSF/UC Berkeley. Dr. Tsai is a nationally-recognized Emergency Medicine physician, speaker, educator, and writer in Oakland, California seeking to support equity across health systems. She received a Masters of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, her medical training at Brown University and Yale University, and currently teaches at the UCSF/UC Berkeley Joint Medical Program. Her academic work centers on the intersection between race, medicine, inequity, and trauma-informed care. Her essays and research have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Scientific American, The Washington Post, ELLE Magazine, and STATNews, and have been recognized as notable works of literary nonfiction in The Best American Science and Nature Writing.