Overcoming Demographic Disparities in Medicine with Vijaya Vemulakonda, MD, JD (S3:E60)

Prenatally diagnosed with hydronephrosis, babies of ethnic minorities get surgery sooner than white ones, often within the first year. That's well documented; the trickier question is why. What role does implicit bias play, or at what point during the process does it come into play? What imaging studies do surgeons order, and how do they interpret the findings? How do those interpretations influence the decision whether to do surgery, or when?

On today’s episode, we are going to talk with Vijaya Vemulakonda, MD, JD, about her work studying demographic disparity in medicine and how the electronic health record can help close the gap. Dr. Vemulakonda is a pediatric urologist at Children’s Colorado and Associate Professor of Surgery and Urology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Read more about Dr. Vemulakonda's research

Do you have thoughts about today's episode or suggestions for a future topic? Write to us, chartingpediatrics@childrenscolorado.org