• Home
  • Practice Focus
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
    • How I Do It
    • TRIO Best Practices
  • Business of Medicine
    • Health Policy
    • Legal Matters
    • Practice Management
    • Tech Talk
    • AI
  • Literature Reviews
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
  • Career
    • Medical Education
    • Professional Development
    • Resident Focus
  • ENT Perspectives
    • ENT Expressions
    • Everyday Ethics
    • From TRIO
    • The Great Debate
    • Letter From the Editor
    • Rx: Wellness
    • The Voice
    • Viewpoint
  • TRIO Resources
    • Triological Society
    • The Laryngoscope
    • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
    • TRIO Combined Sections Meetings
    • COSM
    • Related Otolaryngology Events
  • Search

Achieving Equity and Parity in Otolaryngology Care

by Renée Bacher • November 10, 2019

  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Print-Friendly Version
© Hafiez Razali / shutterstock.com

© Hafiez Razali / shutterstock.com

NEW ORLEANS—Third-generation African American physician Dana M. Thompson, MD, MS, professor and division head of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern Fienberg School of Medicine, said she faces racial discordance on an ongoing basis with most of her patients, colleagues, students, mentors, sponsors, and all of her bosses.

You Might Also Like

  • Achieving Gender Parity in Otolaryngology Requires Work on Several Fronts
  • How Far Women Have Come in Otolaryngology Compensation Parity and What Needs to Happen Next
  • AMA Expands Educational Resources to Advance Equity and Justice in Healthcare
  • Dana Thompson, MD, Addresses Bias and Diversity in Otolaryngology
Explore This Issue
November 2019

Her John Conley, MD Lecture on Medical Ethics, “Achieving Parity in Otolaryngology Care: The Ethical Obligation Beyond Care Access,” presented September 15, 2019, at the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO–HNS) Annual Meeting in New Orleans, showed how her African American patients and those in other underrepresented groups also face this type of discordance in the American healthcare system every day.

“If we are anthro-culturally different from our patients and we see our patients through the lenses of our biases, we risk not understanding their values, expectations of their care, and their needs,” Dr. Thompson said. “This partnership is our ethical responsibility to our patients to help them live healthier lives and achieve health equity.”

Dr. Thompson’s presentation also covered how the effects of American slavery, segregation, capitalism, and individual biases interfere with equity and parity in medicine and otolaryngology. She offered a way forward for physicians based on an examination of personal values and advocacy efforts that can have an impact on equity and parity.

Medicine’s Dilemma: Cost, Access, and Quality

Access to healthcare, Dr. Thompson said, is a function of several factors, including the availability of personnel and supplies close to where a prospective patient lives or easily accessible by transportation. It also means care that is timely, affordable, understandable, and respectful of the patient’s culture. According to Dr. Thompson, healthcare expectations of Americans are those anthro-cultural beliefs and values espoused by the middle class, who value advanced technology, expedited care, and access to the highest possible form of care delivery, despite the diagnosis.

“That leads us to medicine’s dilemma: infinite needs versus finite resources,” Dr. Thompson said, citing the work of the medical economist William Kissick, MD, who was active in drafting Medicare and authored Medicine’s Dilemmas (Yale University Press, 1994). Dr. Kissick coined the phrase “Iron Triangle of Cost, Access, and Quality” to explain that if there were a triangle where cost, access, and quality each represented an angle, expansion of any one of the angles would almost always compromise one or both of the other two.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 | Single Page

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: AAO-HNS 2019, diversity, EthicsIssue: November 2019

You Might Also Like:

  • Achieving Gender Parity in Otolaryngology Requires Work on Several Fronts
  • How Far Women Have Come in Otolaryngology Compensation Parity and What Needs to Happen Next
  • AMA Expands Educational Resources to Advance Equity and Justice in Healthcare
  • Dana Thompson, MD, Addresses Bias and Diversity in Otolaryngology

The Triological SocietyENTtoday is a publication of The Triological Society.

Polls

Have you invented or patented something that betters the field of otolaryngology?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive

Top Articles for Residents

  • Applications Open for Resident Members of ENTtoday Edit Board
  • How To Provide Helpful Feedback To Residents
  • Call for Resident Bowl Questions
  • New Standardized Otolaryngology Curriculum Launching July 1 Should Be Valuable Resource For Physicians Around The World
  • Do Training Programs Give Otolaryngology Residents the Necessary Tools to Do Productive Research?
  • Popular this Week
  • Most Popular
  • Most Recent
    • Otolaryngologists as Entrepreneurs: Transforming Patient Care And Practice

    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment

    • Physician Handwriting: A Potentially Powerful Healing Tool

    • Rating Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Severity: How Do Two Common Instruments Compare?

    • Continued Discussion And Engagement Are Essential To How Otolaryngologists Are Championing DEI Initiatives In Medicine

    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment

    • Rating Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Severity: How Do Two Common Instruments Compare?

    • Is Middle Ear Pressure Affected by Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Use?

    • Otolaryngologists Are Still Debating the Effectiveness of Tongue Tie Treatment

    • Complications for When Physicians Change a Maiden Name

    • Physician Handwriting: A Potentially Powerful Healing Tool
    • Leaky Pipes—Time to Focus on Our Foundations
    • You Are Among Friends: The Value Of Being In A Group
    • How To: Full Endoscopic Procedures of Total Parotidectomy
    • How To: Does Intralesional Steroid Injection Effectively Mitigate Vocal Fold Scarring in a Rabbit Model?

Follow Us

  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • The Triological Society
  • The Laryngoscope
  • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Cookies

Wiley

Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 1559-4939