Submitted by Amanda Ogus on Wed, 07/25/2007 - 4:13pm
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  • Blackprof.com cites a new study of trainee doctors in Boston which shows how one’s overt and implicit prejudice can affect treatment in ER patients.  The study combined a 20-minute computer survey designed to detect prejudice with a hypothetical question of treatment for a 50-year-old man with heart pain, either black or white. The Boston Globe reports that as doctors’ unconscious biases against blacks increased, they were less likely to give the black patient a life-saving clot-busting treatment.  This study provides yet another example showing that equal access to health care does not necessarily mean equal treatment.  Not only are African Americans disproportionately unlikely to have health insurance, the care they are given is often of a lesser standard. 
  • Continuing the trend of educational games about immigration, the Hashmi Law Firm (located in Des Moines, Iowa) created a game intended to depict the daily life struggles of immigrants living in a broken immigration system (Thanks, ImmigrationProf Blog!).  Played last Saturday, July 21, 2007, “Find a Legal Way to Immigrate” allowed players to draw cards of actual scenarios based on current laws and the resulting challenges.  The general public was invited, and The Des Moines Register reports that about 40 people watched or participated.  As an immigrants’ rights attorney, Hashmi maintains that her objective in creating this game was purely education: “to show how difficult the process is.”
  • Think Progress reports on the new smear campaign against Michael Moore’s movie, Sicko.  Financed by pharmaceutical and hospital companies, “Health Care America” staged a conference call, distributed a “fake news video” about Sicko and making ads that say “In America you wait in line to see a movie. In government-run healthcare systems, you wait to see a doctor.”  These projects attempt to show “what Michael Moore left out of his movie."