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April 28, 2026

Citations in our reporting from CDC · NIH · American Heart Association · ACOG · APA · NAACP · Kaiser Family Foundation · JAMA · NEJM · The Lancet

Pulse oximeters fail Black patients. The science, the FDA's response, and what to ask in the ER.

In December 2020, a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine documented that the small device clipped onto a patient's finger to measure blood-oxygen levels (the pulse oximeter) gives less accurate readings on darker …

Mario Bailey Apr 27, 2026 9 min read

Mental Health

How to find a Black therapist: what the evidence says about race-concordance, cultural adaptation, and what to ask in the first session

Malik Johnson Apr 27

Policy

Ernie Hudson is the new face of Black-men's-cancer screening. Here is the evidence behind starting earlier on three cancers.

Malik Johnson Apr 25

This week

Editor's note

This week, we are focusing on a question that affects millions of Black families: why does the American healthcare system consistently underestimate Black patients' pain? From obstetric complications dismissed as exaggerated to sickle cell crises undertreated in emergency rooms, the data on pain bias in medicine are now overwhelming. Our lead story this week reports the research in depth and speaks to the Black clinicians building the evidence base to change it. If this reporting matters to you, share it and sign up for our newsletter below.

From our editor, Simone Abara, April 28, 2026

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Conference / summit

Black Maternal Mental Health Summit 2026 (In-Person)

May 5, 2026

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May 16, 2026

Atlanta, GA

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May 17, 2026

Houston, TX

Education

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Black LGBTQ+ Health

Black LGBTQ+ people face the sharpest within-Black health disparities in the United States. Black men who have sex with men …

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Black Women's Health

Black women in the United States face the widest maternal mortality gap in the high-income world. In 2023, the Black …

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Black Men's Health

Black men develop heart failure at a median age of 39, two decades before white peers, per the CARDIA cohort …

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Kids and Teens

Approximately 1 in 365 Black or African American babies is born with sickle cell disease, and about 1 in 13 …

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Seniors

Black seniors are Medicare-enrolled at similar rates to white seniors but receive less hospice, more intensive end-of-life procedures, and fewer …

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Data

Black health by the numbers

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Chronic Disease

1 in 365

Black American births inherit sickle cell disease — making it the most common genetic disease in the Black community

Updated April 1, 2026

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2.4M

Black Americans fell into the Medicaid coverage gap in states that have not expanded — losing access to subsidized coverage

Updated March 30, 2026

View data Maternal & Reproductive

3.3×

Black women die from pregnancy-related causes at 3.3 times the rate of white women

Updated March 15, 2026

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Policy

Health Policy Watch

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Active Federal

H.R. 3888

PFAS Clean Water Act

Environmental justice research consistently shows Black and low-income communities bear disproportionate PFAS exposure. A 2021 Nature Communications study …

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Critical Federal

H.R. 567