Treating black patients as "knowers"

Abstract

Recent trends in healthcare policy from high-volume service models to "high-value" delivery systems have refocused the need for patient-centered approaches to quality care. However, benchmarks of how to define and evaluate successful patient-centeredness have not been sufficiently established. Such ill-defined evaluation criteria can further exacerbate systemic inequities in maximum quality health care delivery, especially based on the intersectional diversity of various patient populations. In this context, applying a phenomenology of medicine framework or perspective-driven analysis is useful in defining cross-cultural patient-centeredness. This reframing from a naturalistic or objective/biological viewpoint to a phenomenological viewpoint may aid in placing greater epistemic or knowledge authority in the hands of vulnerable and/or marginalized patients- allowing these patients to become key "knowers" in the clinical interaction. Moreover, treating Black patients as "knowers" emphasizes the prioritization of patient values at the core of providing valuable healthcare. Such an academic, policy, and clinical approach to medicine agrees with well-established principles of medical ethics. In addition, the framework of a phenomenology of medicine can better facilitate physician-patient communication and interaction by delineating often muddled hermeneutics.

Keywords: Health equity; Patient-centered healthcare; Phenomenology; Value-based healthcare.