Do No Harm is a United States medical and policy advocacy group. The group opposes gender-affirming care for minors and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in medicine and medical education, including race-conscious medical school admissions and other identity-based considerations regarding health care decision-making.[1] Do No Harm lobbies state legislatures to ban gender-affirming care for youth. It argues that efforts to recruit a more diverse group of medical practitioners will result in lower standards of care, and that diversity training within the health care system places politics ahead of care.

History

The group was founded in 2022 by Stanley Goldfarb, a retired kidney specialist and former associate dean of curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, with funding from Joseph Edelman.[2][3] The group's initial focus was opposing anti-racism in healthcare education and hiring.[4]

The group was formed to "[protect] patients and physicians from woke healthcare", according to an April 2022 press release.[5]

In 2023, the group incorporated a second group, Do No Harm Action, which operates as a lobbying arm.[2]

Gender-affirming care for minors

According to the Associated Press, the group by 2023 had "evolved into a significant leader in statehouses seeking to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youths".[2] It developed a model legislation state legislatures could introduce to ban such care; by May 2023 the model legislation had been introduced in Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, and West Virginia.[2][5]

According to the Associated Press, the model legislation has been criticized for "using technical medical terminology as political rhetoric to scare people".[2] According to Columbia University's Jack Drescher, editor of the gender dysphoria section of the American Psychiatric Association's 2022 diagnostic manual update, the model legislation language is "designed to inflame".[4]

Medical school and health care diversity

According to Goldfarb, efforts by medical schools to recruit a diverse group of students mean "we're not going to look for the best and the brightest. We're going to look for people who are just OK to make sure we have the right mixture of ethnic groups in our medical schools."[2]

In 2023, Do No Harm issued a report titled Racial Concordance in Medicine: The Return of Segregation which found "no relationship between race or ethnicity concordance and the quality of communication, and inconclusive evidence for patient outcomes." Racial concordance in medicine refers to matching the races of physicians and patients.[1][6][7]

References

  1. ^ a b Andrews, Michelle (6 July 2023). "How Health Care May Be Affected by the High Court's Affirmative Action Ruling". KFF Health News. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f McMillan, Jeff; Kruesi, Kimberlee (2023-05-20). "Meet the influential new player on transgender health bills". AP News. Archived from the original on 2023-07-04. Retrieved 2023-09-06.
  3. ^ Flood, Brian (2022-04-19). "Do No Harm aims to keep liberal ideology out of healthcare: 'Physicians are being pushed to discriminate'". Fox News. Archived from the original on 2023-09-05. Retrieved 2023-09-06.
  4. ^ a b "Transgender health bills often came from a handful of far-right interest groups, AP finds". Chicago Sun-Times. 2023-05-22. Retrieved 2023-09-06.
  5. ^ a b Balevic, Katie. "Do No Harm, a group of 'medical professionals' fighting 'woke healthcare,' is behind many anti-trans laws". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2023-06-06. Retrieved 2023-09-06.
  6. ^ Watrobski, Kristina (28 December 2023). "Major medical association slammed for offering 'segregated' scholarships to students". WPMI. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  7. ^ Morgan, Laura (19 December 2023). "Do No Harm Releases New Report: "Racial Concordance in Medicine: The Return of Segregation"". Do No Harm. Retrieved 18 June 2024.

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