Depending on the point made in a paper or speech, a genre can be used to get it across. The genres used could range from argumentative essays, academic blogs, magazines, and opinion columns. The disparity of medical diagnosis is an idea that readers or even listeners could easily grasp if explained using a genre or two. Two genres that could portray those ideas to readers are argumentative essays and academic blogs.

Topics of discussion and controversy having to do with medical institutions, effect in one way or another, marginalized groups. According to the Glossary of Essential Health Equity terms, marginalized groupsare“groups and communities that experience discrimination and exclusion (social, political, and economic) because of unequal power relationships across economic, political, social, and cultural dimensions.” Marginalized groups can refer to women, those with disabilities, black/people of color, and those of different socioeconomic backgrounds. These marginalized groups are forced to have discussions amongst themselves, in their respective communities, pertaining to the discrimination they face during their daily lives. The disparity in the treatment of these marginalized groups also occur outside of hospitals and clinics, from workspaces to academic environments. In medical environments a topic that comes up often is the discussion of the disparity of medical diagnoses between the different marginalized groups.

This topic of disparity in medical diagnosis has made it to researchers and those in professional environments, from nurses, to doctors, and even psychiatrists. They have done studies upon studies, compared data, and have also concluded that these disparities do in fact exist. When thinking of the studies made, one might think that they are specific to the western world like North America and Europe: this is not the case. In fact, these studies have occurred worldwide from western countries like the US to India on the other side of the world. These marginalized groups and their positions vary from country to country and the disparities are the result of stereotypes present in their communities.

In the US specifically, those impacted by the implicit biases that result in disparities, have also internalized those same biases that put them in that position. Detriment to their patients, these implicit biases have made their way into their doctor’s office and the other medical care facilities. Western societies that have huge divides between socioeconomic status, like the United States of America and countries in Europe, stem from racism and continue to blindly share their narrative. It is no surprise that those that are taking care of marginalized groups, were exposed to these ideas/stereotypes.

Western societies have tried to fight against these implicit biases. For example, race when doctors have patients that are Black or of color. There have been laws and policies put into place to prevent discrimination, which results in implicit biases: “152 countries that have prohibited discrimination in promotions and/or demotions based on gender”, according to Social Work Today. While the fight is unified and policies have been put in place, they don’t do much to address the issues, like equal access to healthcare, that minorities face. Their fight only goes so far. A study that focuses on Europe and its healthcare system states, “explicit policy measures to achieve compliance with the principle of equality in access to healthcare are not specifically mentioned in the primary-law instruments.” Meaning that while laws may exist there isn’t anything being done that discrimination isn’t happening.

Doctors and others in clinical positions often make assumptions about their patients instead of asking questions. When one feels that they know all about a patient based off the color of their skin there leaves no room for discussion or for the doctor to remain curious enough to ask more questions. One only learns more when they ask questions.

With all this in mind I have decided that my target audience isn’t just those who take care of patients in these medical spaces but also those surrounding them. This includes their family, friends, and the individual patients themselves. Those close to them sometimes do not realize the extent of certain medical issues that their close ones suffer from, the uncomfortable feeling they get when walking into their hospital knowing they will be scrutinized for being themselves and will not be able to relate to their doctors/nurses. Implicit biases and stereotypes experienced in institutions as well as in our day-to-day lives stem from institutional biases that run deep in the very systems that we live by: “Systematic discrimination is not the aberrant behavior of a few but is often supported by institutional policies and unconscious bias based on negative stereotypes.” Everyone including patients themselves or any other person experiencing this are no exception to projecting stereotypes and implicit biases to others. Everyone is exposed to the same systems and policies that many biases and stereotypes have stemmed from and unfortunately, many internalize and later project these onto themselves and others. Some patients don’t even recognize when they’re facing discrimination.

Researching this topic, I concluded that it would be easy to gather research. I typed ‘disparity when it comes to medical diagnosis’ in the Google search bar and in total there were 49,300,000 results, highlighting how widespread this discussion is and the abundance of research/evidence available. The choosing of which sources could be used is where the struggle lied. In the mix of all those results were scholarly sources, newspaper articles, magazines, and even opinion pieces. But the selection of sources was dependent on the direction I wanted to take my paper and, in this case, what genres your paper are based off. Another crucial factor in choosing evidence is the target audience: it wouldn’t make sense to choose evidence that advises dog owners when your target audience is cat owners.

Keeping this in mind, choosing a genre or more to focus on to convey your message is important. There are a couple of different genres to choose from but for the purpose of my paper, my focus will be on academic blog and argumentative essay. Focusing on the academic blog component of the composition, an academic blog has a sophisticated structure that is straight to point and clear-cut. Not only is it straight forward but it provides facts backed by evidence. Academic blogs are more so impersonal and deviate from words like ‘my,’ ‘I,’ and words of that sense.

Argumentative essays on the other hand depend on tone. Depending on the writer’s goal, they can choose to be impersonal or personal. With argumentative essays another huge factor is persuasion. The main goal is to communicate to readers different stances but push their personal stance and try to convince them to side with you. In this instance, I did not follow every aspect of an academic blog. Instead, I chose different featured from both genres that would mesh well together. Regarding academic blogs my paper focused on providing facts and ideas and supporting them with evidence that seemed dependable. On the other hand, with the argumentative portion I wanted to make it obvious what my stance was, to show how big of a disparity existed regarding medical diagnosis. This being my stance I had to also throw in my opinions. Because I wanted my paper to be impersonal, the phrasing of my opinions and how I chose to present it mattered. My paper had to represent my thoughts and ideas but from afar.

Work Cited

1. Orzechowski, Marcin. “Social Diversity and Access to Healthcare in Europe: How Does European Union’s Legislation Prevent from Discrimination in Healthcare? – BMC Public Health.” BioMed Central, 14 Sept. 2020, bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-020-09494-8.
2. November 2014 Glossary of Essential Health Equity Terms – Nccdh.ca. https://nccdh.ca/images/uploads/comments/English_Glossary_Nov17_FINAL.pdf.
3. Great Valley Publishing Company, Inc. “News.” Nearly 235 Million Women Worldwide Lack Legal Protections From Sexual Harassment at Work, https://www.socialworktoday.com/news/dn_111317.shtml.