Mass General Brigham Physicians Call for Elimination of Harmful Language in Clinical Medicine
Continued Use of Diagnoses like “Red Man Syndrome” Undermine Health Equity
Boston, April 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) In a new perspective published in the
New England Journal of Medicine, physicians from Mass General Brigham and Johns Hopkins Medicine say it is time to eliminate the use of racist and harmful terms such as “Red Man Syndrome” and encourage improvements in drug-allergy documentation that recognize the diversity of patient populations.
The article focuses on terminology used to describe a drug reaction to Vancomycin, the most commonly used antibiotic in U.S. hospitals. As many as half of patients who receive Vancomycin have this reaction and yet since 1959, the symptoms have been widely referred to by clinicians as “Red Man Syndrome.”
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