Medical doctors need, and often are not given, training in how to treat their patients without sexual and racial prejudice. This ignorance is associated with lower rates of diagnosed illness, poorer treatment, and a bedside manner that is offensive to patients in the discriminated groups. The root of the prejudice is the belief that white men are more valuable and contribute more to society than other groups do.
In the USA, white male patients are more likely to receive lifesaving medical treatment than racial minority and female patients who have the same level of medical insurance and income. In 1992, older whites were 3.5 times more likely than older blacks to receive bypass surgery for blocked arteries. Asian, Latino and black patients and women are 20 to 50% less likely to undergo certain types of cardiac treatments. One kidney is transplanted into a black for every two that whites receive, and one Latino receives emergency painkillers for every two prescribed to whites for bone fractures. The discriminated patients are not diagnosed early enough either; women are more likely than men to die within a year of a heart attack.
The length of time a doctor spends with a patient, the information obtained from, and the treatments offered to a patient depend partly on the doctor's biases, even though the biases may be unwitting.