Castle Connolly, the organization known for publishing its “Top Doctor” list, now publishes a “Top Black Doctor” list so patients can racialize their search for specialists in their area.
The separate publication comes as part of Castle Connolly’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative. To compile the list, the company asked its doctors to “share information about their race/ethnicity, gender and sexual identity.”
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In an email obtained by the medical advocacy group Do No Harm, Castle Connolly said, “Studies show patient outcomes and satisfaction in minority populations are higher when patients are able to choose a doctor with a shared background and experience.”
Separately, Castle Connolly Managing Director Steve Leibforth said in a press release in February, “At Castle Connolly, we are committed to advancing DEI and to promoting and embracing our diversity.
“We are proud to recognize these leading top black doctors and encourage all consumers to do their research to ensure that they are receiving optimal care,” it continued.
The premise for the segregated list is a phenomenon known as “racial concordance,” wherein, theoretically, patients trust doctors of their own race more than doctors of a different one. This perception of trust does not affect healthcare outcomes and appears to exist among black patients at a rate about twice that of white patients, according to one study commissioned by Castle Connolly.
“While it may be claimed that racial concordance between doctors and patients improves health outcomes, in reality, there are no data to support that,” Do No Harm’s chairman, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, told the Washington Examiner. “There have been some short-term studies that suggest that patients may be more comfortable with individuals of the same race, but the largest study of this, including several thousand patients, failed to reveal any benefit whatsoever.”
According to Dr. Jacqueline Jones, who is an associate professor of clinical otolaryngology at Weill Cornell Medical Center, Castle Connolly Advisory Board member, and executive sponsor of the company’s DEI project, the connection to a doctor “can be established on so many different levels — whether it’s by walking into a room and seeing someone who looks like you, or speaks the same language as you do, or having a doctor who understands where you came from and the cultural significance of your illness.”
For Goldfarb, however, the messaging on race-determinant medical care sows mistrust among patients and is driving patients of all races to seek out doctors who share their ethnic background.
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“Do we really want patients seeking individuals of a particular race to be their physicians? Do we really want patients seeking individuals of a particular race to be their physicians? Do we want white patients refusing to see black doctors and vice versa as part of the American healthcare scene?” he asked. “I don’t think so.”
The organization also began publishing other similar lists, such as “Exceptional Women in Medicine” and “Top LGBTQ+ Doctors.”
