A Simple Mathematical Equation Disqualified Black Patients for Kidney Transplants
At Mass General Brigham, a Boston hospital, doctors punching numbers into the computer system to calculate their patient’s kidney health would see this message:
“If patient is Black, multiply by 1.159.”
The number that doctors calculated, a single number that measured how well the kidneys filter waste, is a key factor in the kind of care patients receive. It’s also crucial for whether the patient is prioritized for kidney transplants.
This equation is used around the country, but a new study focused at Mass General found that this multiplier was responsible for downgrading the severity of 700 Black patients and kept more than 60 off the kidney transplant waitlist.
You can read more about the new Boston study here:
The origin of this “multiplier” came from a 1999 study, where researchers noticed Black patients had more of a specific type of organic waste. They assumed this was because Black people had more muscle mass, a common American racist stereotype, and implemented the multiplier, at least according to Scientific American.
Separately, University of Washington student Naomi Nkinsi has been fighting at her own university to get race taken out of the same equation — and won. UW’s medical center will no longer use the multiplier when calculating kidney function.
Here’s what Nkinsi told Scientific American:
You’re talking about my body, you’re talking about my family’s bodies. How can I trust that … [we’re] getting the best care, when I know that the way [doctors] treat Black people is so much different than the way we see other people in medicine? If you speak up, you’re an angry Black person who’s unprofessional. If you don’t speak up, you feel like you’re failing the community.
