Baltimore hospitals work to repair mistrust in black community

In Baltimore's low-income neighborhoods, which are plagued by poor health and life expectancies far below average, providers are working to re-establish a sense of community trust with residents, according to a PBS Newshour report. Distrust of the medical establishment goes back generations within the black community due to medical wrongdoings such as Johns Hopkins' nonconsensual use of black cancer patient Henrietta Lacks' tissue cells. "Now, that is not the case. Care is rigorously delivered with consent from the patient always," said University of Maryland, Baltimore, President Jay Perman, M.D. "But it takes a long time, I think, for people to understand that the days of hidden experimentation are over." Post-Affordable Care Act, when hospitals are penalized for not managing population health, providers such as Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland must proactively work to repair this trust, according to the report. Article