The impact of limited diversity in clinical guidelines on health inequalities

What is it about?

Clinical practice guidelines are important medical rules. They help doctors decide how to treat patients and guide those in charge to decide where to spend healthcare money. These guidelines are known all around the world, and when big organizations support them, they can affect the lives of millions of people. But here’s the problem: these guidelines aren’t very diverse. A lot of them don't have enough diversity among the people who write them. Studies have shown that women and people from minority groups aren't represented enough. The author also shares some suggestions to make things more diverse. This includes teaching leaders about diversity, keeping track of those who create these guidelines, and decreasing support for those organizations that aren’t diverse enough.

Featured Image

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Why is it important?

When the people writing these guidelines aren’t from different backgrounds, they might miss out on understanding the needs of all patients, especially those groups who are underrepresented. This does not just impact the medical professionals who aren’t involved, but also the guidelines themselves. It can mean that important treatments for some patients are not included. This could cause problems in how well patients are cared for. KEY TAKEAWAY: To make medical guidelines fair and helpful for everyone, we need to make sure that everyone’s needs are equally thought about and included. Asking different kinds of experts to join in can help achieve this by bringing in different points of view. This research relates to the following Sustainable Development Goals: • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being