US medicine was built in part on the bodies of Black people without their consent. In the 1840s, J. Marion Sims developed gynecological surgeries by operating on enslaved women without anesthesia. From 1932 to 1972, the US Public Health Service ran the Tuskegee study, withholding treatment from Black men with syphilis. In 1951, doctors took Henrietta Lacks's cells without her knowledge.
The bias persists in ordinary care. A 2016 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences surveyed white medical students and residents. About half endorsed at least one false belief about biological differences between Black and white people, such as thicker skin. Those who did rated Black patients' pain as lower.
Race-based formulas have also shaped treatment. Until 2021, a widely used kidney function equation adjusted results for Black patients, which could delay transplant listing. National kidney groups recommended a race-free equation that year. Medical racism helps explain why distrust of health systems is rational for many Black patients.