Bias and racism in the biomedical community thwart scientific advancement, reduce the pipeline of diverse clinicians and scientists, and contribute to racial and ethnic health disparities. We advocate for proactive antiracism approaches to eliminate barriers impacting people of colour, promote equity and achieve a more effective biomedical community.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
The Promise and Challenges of Integrating Biological and Prevention Sciences: A Community-Engaged Model for the Next Generation of Translational Research
Prevention Science Open Access 03 September 2024
-
Motivators and Barriers to COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions Across U.S. County-Level Barriers in the COVID-19 Vaccine Coverage Index
Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Open Access 02 August 2024
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$32.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Health Disparities & Inequalities Report - United States, 2013 https://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/pdf/other/su6203.pdf (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2013).
Hoffman, K. M., Trawalter, S., Axt, J. R. & Oliver, M. N. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 4296–4301 (2016).
Institute of Medicine. Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care (eds Smedley, B. D., Stith, A. Y. & Nelson, A. R.) (National Academies Press, 2003).
AlShebli, B. K., Rahwan, T. & Woon, W. L. Nat. Commun. 9, 5163 (2018).
Hoppe, T. A. et al. Sci. Adv 5, w7238 (2019).
Ginther, D. K. et al. Science 333, 1015–1019 (2011).
Stolzenberg, E.B. et al. Undergraduate Teaching Faculty: the HERI Faculty Survey 2016–2017. https://heri.ucla.edu/monographs/HERI-FAC2017-monograph.pdf (Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA 2019).
Hu, Y. Y. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 381, 1741–1752 (2019).
Williams, D. R., Lawrence, J. A., Davis, B. A. & Vu, C. Health Serv. Res. 54(Suppl 2), 1374–1388 (2019).
Ozier, E. M., Taylor, V. J. & Murphy, M. C. J. Soc. Issues 75, 1087–1115 (2019).
Levanon, A., England, P. & Allison, P. Soc. Forces 88, 865–891 (2009).
Came, H. & Griffith, D. Soc. Sci. Med. 199, 181–188 (2018).
Johnson, T. J. et al. Acad. Emerg. Med. 23, 297–305 (2016).
Williams, D. R. & Cooper, L. A. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 16, 606 (2019).
Jones, C. P. Ethn. Dis. 28(Suppl 1), 231–234 (2018).
Acknowledgements
Y.L.H. is supported by NIH grants DA15446, DA050323 and DA030359. None of the funders had a role in the conceptualization of, preparation of, or decision to publish this manuscript. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the NIH. The authors thank E. Benn for her helpful insights, and we thank our colleagues from around the nation who shared their personal experiences with us, which were all extremely valuable though some could not be cited.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Clark, U.S., Hurd, Y.L. Addressing racism and disparities in the biomedical sciences. Nat Hum Behav 4, 774–777 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0917-7
Published:
Version of record:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0917-7
This article is cited by
-
Racial Differences in Stigmatizing and Positive Language in Emergency Medicine Notes
Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2025)
-
“Lord Knows What’s Being Done with My Blood!”: Black Women’s Perceptions of Biospecimen Donation for Clinical Research in the United States
Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2025)
-
Motivators and Barriers to COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions Across U.S. County-Level Barriers in the COVID-19 Vaccine Coverage Index
Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2025)
-
Building trust and transparency in biomedical sciences through data walks
Nature Medicine (2024)
-
The Promise and Challenges of Integrating Biological and Prevention Sciences: A Community-Engaged Model for the Next Generation of Translational Research
Prevention Science (2024)