Racial Categories in Medical Practice: How Useful Are They?

Is it good medical practice for physicians to "eyeball" a patient's race when assessing their medical status or even to ask them to identify their race

Response to "The Legitimacy of Genetic Ancestry Tests"

Anthropolog

Escaping Melodramas in Medical Research : The Infamous U.S. Public Health Service's Studies in Guatemala and Tuskegee

Presentation delivered on April 11, 2012 at Haverford College, Stokes Auditorium by Susan M. Reverby, Marion Butler McLean Professor in the History of Ideas and Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Wellesley College.Susan M. Reverby is perhaps best known for her two books on what is referred to as the infamous "Tuskegee" Syphilis study (1932-72), the longest running non-therapeutic research study in U.S. history that involved the United States Public Health Service and more than 600 African American men in the counties surrounding Tuskegee, Alabama. The men thought they were being "treated," not studied, for what they thought of as "bad blood." The study has become a central metaphor for distrust of the health care system and as the key example of unethical research. She was a member of the Legacy Committee on the Study that successfully lobbied President Bill Clinton to offer a public apology to the surviving men and their heirs in 1997. Her edited book of articles and primary documents on the study appeared in 2000 (Tuskegee Truths: Rethinking the Tuskegee Syphilis Study). Her second book, Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and its Legacy came out in 2009. It won the Arthur Viseltear Prize from the Medical Care Section of the American Public Health Association, the Sulzby Prize for the Best Book in Alabama History from the Alabama History Association, and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize for the Best Book in the Humanities from national Phi Beta Kappa.\ud \ud In 2010, her research and subsequent article on the U.S. Public Health Services STD Inoculation Studies in Guatemala led to an apology to Guatemala from the U.S. government at the highest levels, world-wide media coverage, and a presidential commission report in both the U.S. and Guatemala

The Inoculation Studies in Guatemala: a webinar with Susan Reverby, PhD

The Guatemala syphilis study, unearthed by medical historian, Susan M. Reverby, is another shocking and sadly familiar example of the abuse of human subjects in research. Ms. Reverby will present her findings in a webinar titled The Guatemalan Inoculation Study: Susan M. Reverby on Research Ethics and Lessons for HRPPs, which will address the horrific story of US public health researchers intentionally infecting hundreds of people in Guatemala, including mental patients, with gonorrhea and syphilis without their knowledge. A professor at Wellesley College who has published two books about the US Public Health Service Syphilis study that took place in Tuskegee, AL, Ms. Reverby will share her findings and insights on what today’s research professionals may learn from this astounding example of immoral research practices that occurred more than 60 years ago