Many topics of discussion or even controversy having to do with medical institutions, effect in some way or another a marginalized group. 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 have these discussions amongst themselves, in their communities. The disparity in the treatment of these marginalized groups also occurs outside of medical institutions, 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. 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 isn’t the case. In fact, these studies have occurred worldwide from western countries like the US to India on the other side of the case. 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, many have been affected by these disparities that have much to do with implicit biases that many have internalized without realizing. Detriment to their patients, these implicit biases have made their way into their doctor’s office and the other medical care facilities they may attend. With a country that has a huge divide between socioeconomic status, which has stemmed from racism and that continues to blindly share their narrative freely, it is no surprise that those that are taking care of marginalized groups have been exposed to these ideas/stereotypes.

For example, race when doctors have patients that are black or of color. Caretakers/doctors have this automatic assumption about the lifestyle of their patient. 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; this is a statement that everyone should remember through their everyday lives.

With all this in mind I’ve 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 don’t 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 stereotyped and won’t be able to relate to their doctors/nurses. Implicit biases and stereotypes that are 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, showcasing how widespread this discussion is and the abundance of research/evidence available. The picking and 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 important 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 many 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 didn’t 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 reliable. 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 in the medical field 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.