April 29, 2026
Racial Disparities in Healthcare
Anne Soos
Retired Science Teacher, Stewart Country Day School
Dr. Carolyn Gould
Retired Pediatrician, CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia), Pediatric and Adolescent Care, Burlington, NJ
Racial Disparities in Healthcare
Anne Soos
Retired Science Teacher, Stewart Country Day School
Dr. Carolyn Gould
Retired Pediatrician, CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia), Pediatric and Adolescent Care, Burlington, NJ
Carolyn Gould, Anne Soos, and John Cotton, introducer
Minutes of the 28th Meeting of the 84th Year
Old Guard President George Bustin called the meeting to order at 10:15 AM and Frances Slade led the membership in the invocation. There were 101 members in attendance.
Two members recently passed on: Dr. David Atkin and J. Roger Woolston and the meeting held a moment of silence in remembrance.
President Bustin introduced Rick Fernandez's guest, Raquel Rahn, who is applying for membership.
President Bustin showed us the slate of officers for next year as proposed by the Nominating Committee. We will vote on the slate of officers at our next meeting.
President Bustin said that the 12- or 13-person slate of people applying for membership and being proposed by the Membership Committee will be posted next week, and the slate will then be voted on at the following meeting.
President Bustin will be stepping down from office at the end of this program year having served through 66 meetings during the past two years. Membership Chair, Terry Lemishcka, will also be stepping down. President Bustin asked members to volunteer for work on committees. Committee chairs serve for three years and President of the Old Guard serves for two years.
Also noted was that next year's meetings will again be held primarily at the Princeton Jewish Center, to which the Executive Committee has recommended that a charitable contribution be made in recognition of their hospitality and kindness.
The Minutes of the April 22, 2026 meeting were read by Marlaine Lockheed.
John Cotton then introduced today's speakers: Anne Soos and Carolyn Gould, MD. Ann Soos is a graduate of Harvard University (BS) and Rutgers (MS). She had 50-year career as a high school teacher of biology, chemistry, and environmental science at Stuart Country Day School and The Hun School. She also served as Upper School Head at Stuart and was an AP (Advanced Placement) consultant for the College Board.
Carolyn Gould, MD, a graduate of Douglas College and Johns Hopkins University (where she was one of the first African-American medical students) also completed her pediatrics residency at Johns Hopkins and the Clinical Scholars Program at the University of North Carolina. After six years of academic pediatrics at the University of Maryland, she returned to New Jersey where she was in private practice in Trenton and Burlington until her retirement in 2014.
Anne Soos stated that race is not a species or subspecies. The two differences that are often associated with being racial differences, skin color and sickle cell anemia, are the result of natural selection and geographic area. Dark skin color is the result of natural selection dependent on the UV rays in sunlight where populations live and sickle cell anemia is common in people residing in areas where malaria is common.
Dr Carolyn Gould and Anne Soos both stated that people with white skins are four times more likely than people with black skins to get good health care. Examples given were for cardiac conditions like blood clots, coronary bypasses, and congestive heart failure. The same is also true for pain management and maternal and infant mortality.
Social determinants of health play a role in this discrimination: economics, education, neighborhoods, and access to health care and insurance (in New Jersey, Dr. Gould said that 42% of physicians do not accept Medicaid), transportation, and medical research being performed without consent on Black people.
Medical school graduates at present are 55% white, 25% Asian, 6% hispanic, and 6% black. The cost of four years at a medical school is $250,000 causing many doctors not to practice in the lower paid primary medical specialties. The racial bias in medical education is caused by semantics (choice of words used by faculty), prevalence without context, race based diagnoses, race based pathologizing, race based clinical guidelines, and using race as a vital sign in case presentations.
In conclusion, Dr. Gould recommended better communication to gain trust between doctors and patients, and better financing of medical educations.
In answer to questions from the membership, Dr Gould said that now 40% of medical schools are teaching the social aspects of medicine, such as poverty. Asked if she thought that if the United States provided universal health care to all citizens, it would eliminate racial discrimination, she said there are many factors to consider. Asked how she thought AI would impact health care, she said we first have to get clinical studies updated, so we would have an accurate data set. Asked about Affirmative Action, she said the best overall answers to eliminating discrimination in health care are (1) preschool for all; (2) recognizing the biases we each have; and (3) increasing the amount of time for medical appointments beyond the current 15 minutes. Asked if the fact that 60% of medical students are women might help eliminate discrimination in health care, she replied that there is no evidence that women and more or less biased than men.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathryn Trenner
Two members recently passed on: Dr. David Atkin and J. Roger Woolston and the meeting held a moment of silence in remembrance.
President Bustin introduced Rick Fernandez's guest, Raquel Rahn, who is applying for membership.
President Bustin showed us the slate of officers for next year as proposed by the Nominating Committee. We will vote on the slate of officers at our next meeting.
President Bustin said that the 12- or 13-person slate of people applying for membership and being proposed by the Membership Committee will be posted next week, and the slate will then be voted on at the following meeting.
President Bustin will be stepping down from office at the end of this program year having served through 66 meetings during the past two years. Membership Chair, Terry Lemishcka, will also be stepping down. President Bustin asked members to volunteer for work on committees. Committee chairs serve for three years and President of the Old Guard serves for two years.
Also noted was that next year's meetings will again be held primarily at the Princeton Jewish Center, to which the Executive Committee has recommended that a charitable contribution be made in recognition of their hospitality and kindness.
The Minutes of the April 22, 2026 meeting were read by Marlaine Lockheed.
John Cotton then introduced today's speakers: Anne Soos and Carolyn Gould, MD. Ann Soos is a graduate of Harvard University (BS) and Rutgers (MS). She had 50-year career as a high school teacher of biology, chemistry, and environmental science at Stuart Country Day School and The Hun School. She also served as Upper School Head at Stuart and was an AP (Advanced Placement) consultant for the College Board.
Carolyn Gould, MD, a graduate of Douglas College and Johns Hopkins University (where she was one of the first African-American medical students) also completed her pediatrics residency at Johns Hopkins and the Clinical Scholars Program at the University of North Carolina. After six years of academic pediatrics at the University of Maryland, she returned to New Jersey where she was in private practice in Trenton and Burlington until her retirement in 2014.
Anne Soos stated that race is not a species or subspecies. The two differences that are often associated with being racial differences, skin color and sickle cell anemia, are the result of natural selection and geographic area. Dark skin color is the result of natural selection dependent on the UV rays in sunlight where populations live and sickle cell anemia is common in people residing in areas where malaria is common.
Dr Carolyn Gould and Anne Soos both stated that people with white skins are four times more likely than people with black skins to get good health care. Examples given were for cardiac conditions like blood clots, coronary bypasses, and congestive heart failure. The same is also true for pain management and maternal and infant mortality.
Social determinants of health play a role in this discrimination: economics, education, neighborhoods, and access to health care and insurance (in New Jersey, Dr. Gould said that 42% of physicians do not accept Medicaid), transportation, and medical research being performed without consent on Black people.
Medical school graduates at present are 55% white, 25% Asian, 6% hispanic, and 6% black. The cost of four years at a medical school is $250,000 causing many doctors not to practice in the lower paid primary medical specialties. The racial bias in medical education is caused by semantics (choice of words used by faculty), prevalence without context, race based diagnoses, race based pathologizing, race based clinical guidelines, and using race as a vital sign in case presentations.
In conclusion, Dr. Gould recommended better communication to gain trust between doctors and patients, and better financing of medical educations.
In answer to questions from the membership, Dr Gould said that now 40% of medical schools are teaching the social aspects of medicine, such as poverty. Asked if she thought that if the United States provided universal health care to all citizens, it would eliminate racial discrimination, she said there are many factors to consider. Asked how she thought AI would impact health care, she said we first have to get clinical studies updated, so we would have an accurate data set. Asked about Affirmative Action, she said the best overall answers to eliminating discrimination in health care are (1) preschool for all; (2) recognizing the biases we each have; and (3) increasing the amount of time for medical appointments beyond the current 15 minutes. Asked if the fact that 60% of medical students are women might help eliminate discrimination in health care, she replied that there is no evidence that women and more or less biased than men.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathryn Trenner