While the algorithms to determine the course of diagnosis and treatment for patients with a host of maladies have changed as medical knowledge has advanced over time, in many cases, one thing has stayed the same: many of these calculations factor in the race of the patient. OHSU is changing that with new protocol that excludes race as a variable. (Getty Images)
The following few sentences, while muted and technical, trumpet a tectonic shift at Oregon Health & Science University and in American medicine amid a national reckoning on racism:
“Effective Jan. 19, 2022, the clinical laboratories at Oregon Health & Science University will transition from the use of the MDRD (Modification of Diet in Renal Disease) equation for estimation of glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), to the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) Creatinine equation.
The new protocol excludes race as a variable. Instead, the CKD-EPI eGFR results are based on serum creatinine, age and sex, and is normalized to 1.73 m² body surface area.”
Dating back to the origins of modern medicine, doctors have used calculations called clinical algorithms to determine the course of diagnosis and treatment for patients with a host of maladies, including chronic kidney disease (CKD). While the algorithms have changed as medical knowledge has advanced over time, in many cases, one thing has stayed the same: many of these calculations factor in the race of the patient.
The practice has historically been understood to be appropriately responding to the different prevalence or severity of disease in var
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