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Notes -
Please excuse me for asking this uncomfortable question. Given the nature of affirmative action and other similar dynamics on both medical school acceptance rates and then hiring decisions on the labor market, how much racism is rational for a patient to exercise in selecting a surgeon? While it seems like the racial hierarchy of talent is pretty clear, are the gaps small enough that a patient should simply prefer a risky surgery be performed by someone from one of the higher achieving groups? Or are the gaps so large, a patient should do everything in their power to make sure they have a higher achieving group member performs the risky surgery? Obviously a direct individual comparison between available surgeons would be ideal, but often not possible for patient to accurately assess.
IIRC more complex and difficult surgeries get put on capable white men anyways, while less capable doctors(who tend to be more black) are given more routine tasks, to the point that black doctors as a whole have far below average patient death rates. So you should probably assume that A) medschool is an effective filter for basic competence and B) the existing medical system does a good job of assigning physicians to tasks matching their skill level.
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In India, all else being equal (or rather equally obfuscated), I'd certainly do my very best to avoid being treated by a doctor who was SC/ST/OBC or the myriad other categories that entitles them to our equivalent of AA. It would take them listing objective markers of performance like test scores (that weren't weighted for AA) for me to reconsider them.
I'd assume the situation is about as bad in the US, certainly to the degree that unless I had more objective assessments, I'd take the doctor less likely to have been pushed through.
Should you lose sleep over it if you don't have a better choice? Probably not, but you should still make a good effort.
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In 2020 the average black person accepted to med school had an MCAT around the 62nd percentile. Whites were at 83 and Asians were around 86. Also men score higher than women but the difference is smaller. Personally I would only ever go to a white or asian doctor given the choice but it's really up to your own risk tolerance.
https://medschoolinsiders.com/pre-med/surprising-med-school-stats/
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