As the leader of the National Medical Association, I have the responsibility to provide a perspective to our constituents on key issues in Medicine that are important to us and to the patients whom we serve. One of those issues is TRUST, which has special meaning to people who have been subjected to so many abuses and indignities over the past 400 years.
In the tradition and in memory of the late legendary Howard University School of Medicine professor, civil rights activist, former NAACP president, past president of the National Medical Association, philosopher, and my personal mentor and hero, W. Montague Cobb, MD, Ph.D, who was also Editor Emeritus of this Journal, I submit the following perspective on this topic, which will be incorporated into my forthcoming book, Blacks in Medicine: Clinical, Demographic, and Socioeconomic Correlations (Springer Science & Media, 2017).
II. Building Trust
What are the basic tenets of trust? They include dependability, reliability, respect for privacy, decency, belief in the abilities and good intentions of the providers of care, and a feeling that the patient will be treated with dignity and proper…