Our CARE BIG approach allows us at Unilabs to be one step closer to providing inclusive healthcare and making a real difference. Click To Tweet
It is said that everyone needs to find their place in the world, but sometimes this means changing to fit in like a puzzle piece. But what if we re-shaped the world so that everyone would fit in, whatever their shape? This is what inclusiveness means, and applied to health care, means one thing: saving lives.
For example, what would you think when you see these images?
Collection Cell-portraits by visual artist Santiago Forero, 2016
The typical photos template of someone taking a selfie in the bathroom mirror, but we only see a hand and a mobile phone. But what does it mean? Perhaps our image is defined by new technologies more so than the person in the image.
It is only when we meet the artist Santiago Forero, that we understand that those selfies are simply selfies, but due to his figure out of the average, this is all that can be seen of him in these public toilets, displaying the limitation of society’s restrictive nature.
What does inclusive healthcare mean?
Inclusive health care is caring without stigma, stereotypes or misconceptions, and creating safe spaces where everyone can feel free from bias regarding their lives, decisions, bodies or relationships.
There are many opportunities to take a step towards inclusion and sensitivity, elevating the care offered to patients by making centres accessible to functional diversities or having the tools to create positive experiences for all types of patients.
For example, achieving comfortable and successful MRI scans for patients with autism requires effective communication, training, and adjustments to the scanning environment. Ensuring it is easy to alleviate certain sensory issues by adjusting the lighting, temperature or acoustic noise of the scanning room.
It is also a big step forward not to assume gender or sexual orientation or to use inclusive language in materials such as brochures, questionnaires and websites when addressing individuals or collectives.
But inclusiveness looks far beyond this. For example, for years, awareness and prevention mechanisms have been successful in reducing mortality from many types of cancer, but this does not apply equally to black people and white people.
According to the study released this year by the American Cancer Society, between 1989 and 2020, the breast cancer mortality rate for all women dropped 43%, which translates to 460,000 fewer deaths, due to improvements in early screening and treatment. But despite the lower incidence, black women have a 40% higher risk of dying from breast cancer than white women.
The reasons for the persistence of these disparities are complex but are often related to structural racism, for example, historical discrimination in the denial of legal lending, and unequal access to care. Even when treatment is available, many patients may have no available means of transport to diagnostic imaging centres, no possibility of taking time off work or facing other non-medical barriers.
To address this, it is important not only to explore the influence of systemic racism on health but also to increase diversity in clinical trials and the health system’s financial incentives for providing equitable care across the entire cancer process.
Evermore, black people historically received higher x-ray radiation doses due to mistaken racial beliefs about their body habitus and skin colour.
But believe it or not, in the hands of radiology technicians was the start of changing certain ways of thinking and providing the best care equally.
What does inclusive healthcare mean for us?
At Unilabs, our mission is to give answers that help provide the best care, resulting in ways of working, such as walking in the patient’s shoes and bringing out the best in ourselves.
This approach enables Unilabs to be one step closer to providing inclusive health care and making a real difference for our colleagues, customers, and patients.
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