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To: Lady Lurksalot who wrote (96843)	1/26/2005 2:22:40 AM
From: zeta1961	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793717

<<the person taking the medical history comes to a conclusion by merely eyeballing the patient, rather than asking the patient for specifics>> Well, at times during the interview/assessment there is no need as it is obvious but depending on the patient and clinician, that Q is probed further if it is deemed an important piece of data(in my experience)..now, I worked with kids as I said in 2 multi-ethnic, racial and very politically correct cities/teaching institutions (Boston/SF)...I have no doubt that there are varying practices depending on the institution all around the country[edit: even the same city]..God knows there are varying levels of intervention in very cut and dry medical circumstances..I can write a book on the transports we brought to our PICU because of outlying hospital lack of services and knowledge! Thanks for the discussion..I suppose my main point was indeed about the value of assessing racial/ethnic class of a patient since it can provide essential information to elicit the best outcome.. Zeta

To: Lady Lurksalot who wrote (96843)	1/26/2005 3:17:51 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793717

I believe it was in the middle to late 1970s that medical facilities were strongly encouraged to reference patient ethnicity. When California had a propositon up to stop identifying by race on all forms, one of the exceptions that was made a big deal of was that medical forms could still use it.

To: Lady Lurksalot who wrote (96843)	1/26/2005 11:45:40 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793717

That said, it has been my experience that patients are rarely asked their ethnic background and that the person taking the medical history comes to a conclusion by merely eyeballing the patient, rather than asking the patient for specifics. It makes sense to me to include the extended family, the tribe, when taking medical histories. What I questioned was the assertion that race is eyeballed and recorded by hospital technicians doing medical testing. I've had plenty of chest xrays and blood tests and the like in hospitals. It's not at all clear to me why the technician would register my race let alone adjust the test results based on it, as was asserted. Do you know of any medical tests where race information affects the testing? Maybe if I had an example I could get my head around it.