JobID
Location
Columbia, MO | United States
Job description
Start Date: April 2024
Salary: $80,000, plus generous benefits
Term: This is a limited term contract. The Fellow will have orientation in April and work from April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025 (12 months).
Location: Remote/Hybrid. Fellow will have occasional required travel.
Application Deadline: 5 p.m. CT March 1, 2024
Overview
The Civic Science Fellow at the Association of Health Care Journalists will focus on increasing awareness of racial bias in health research and how that is communicated in health journalism. The fellow will highlight the patient impact of bias in health research through storytelling and create educational resources for journalists on the issues.
Why focus on racial bias in research?
Racial bias in research has a largely untold impact on everyone’s health, especially when you take a more in-depth look at the clinical algorithms used as decision making tools by clinicians, hospital systems and insurance companies.
These algorithms take into account a variety of factors, including patient symptoms, medical history, test results and race. Clinical algorithms or their outputs are used and interpreted by doctors to guide recommendations on treatment protocols such as whether to test a child for pediatric urinary tract infection, or to diagnose kidney or lung disease.
Despite their wide use, such algorithms do not equally benefit all patients. Some medical algorithms have been developed without a sufficiently critical, research-based approach to the use of information about race. Others have been built on flawed assumptions or developed from homogenous data sets that do not reflect the patient population at large. These gaps in research and guidelines may result in undue harm, most often to communities that have experienced systemic inequities. They can also perpetuate existing disparities in care .
As knowledge has increased about the impact of these biased algorithms on patients, a growing number of voices, including leading clinicians, legislators and federal agencies, have called for a re-examination of clinical algorithms, arguing that they must be validated through rigorous research that ensures equitable healthcare services and outcomes.
Key Responsibilities and Activities
Our Ideal Candidate
About AHCJ
The Association of Health Care Journalists is an independent, nonprofit professional journalism association dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. We work with thousands of journalists each year to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting and editing internationally.
We value and celebrate diversity and building an inclusive work environment. We encourage candidates of all backgrounds and identities to apply.
The Association of Health Care Journalists (ACHJ) has partnered with the Doris Duke Foundation (DDF) in supporting a fellow to complete work that aligns with AHCJ's priorities and the Racial Equity in Clinical Equations Initiative as part of the Civic Science Fellowship program.
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