University Of Pennsylvania Stops Ban On Non-Black Races From Doctor Directory

Five months after medical advocacy group “Do No Harm” sued the University of Pennsylvania, its medical school and health system, a Philadelphia-area consortium of medical schools and an African-American-owned and operated talk radio station for excluding non-black doctors from a directory for black patients, the defendants have thrown in the towel.

U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle entered a final judgment in favor of Do No Harm and against the Penn defendants, Consortium of DEI Health Educators and WURD Radio for $1 in nominal damages after the defendants made an offer of judgment, three weeks earlier, to rename the Black Doctors Directory and stop considering race in eligibility for inclusion.

The defendants filed motions for extension to respond to the lawsuit as many as four times each, most recently July 25, and made the offer of judgment a day before that motion’s deadline, suggesting a lack of legal confidence in the racially exclusive directory.

Promoted “culturally affirming” health care
It was created last fall and promoted in a splashy video by WURD Radio, with Penn Medicine Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion Horace Delisser claiming black doctors “use their knowledge to inform their care in ways that are culturally appropriate and culturally affirming” and “are able to help the patient overcome” mistrust in the medical system.

WURD Radio President and CEO Sara Lomax, whose late father was the namesake for the directory, claimed to be its driving force, asserting that when blacks “enter the health systems, our humanity is not seen, it’s not valued, it’s not respected.”