Continuity of care means better health outcome

A racial tie between physician and patient might not be the only way to eliminate health disparities, according to new research.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Dec. 19, 2005.

Washington -- Having a medical home makes a big difference when it comes to managing hypertension among older patients -- especially seeing the same physician over the years.

At least that was the message from a recent study done by researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C. They concluded that continuity of care was even more important than was a racial match between physicians and their patients.

This finding held true for older black and white patients and runs counter to other studies that found race makes a difference. The results are published in the December American Journal of Public Health.

Data on effective care to people of all races has become important since the prevalence of health disparities was highlighted in the Institute of Medicine's 2002 report, "Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care."

The medical field is taking steps to address the differences. For example, the AMA is leading efforts to educate the profession on the topic.

Honing effective hypertension treatment for black patients is of particular value because the disorder develops earlier in blacks than in whites and is usually more severe.

Evaluating the roles played by individual physicians and the health care system to manage chronic diseases effectively was the impetus for the study, said Thomas R. Konrad, PhD, a lead investigator and director of the program on health professions and primary care at UNC's Sheps Center for Health Services Research.