Deconstructing Biases: The West is Not Best

Abstract

As the world becomes increasingly globalized, medicine has recognized the need to create today’s physicians as global citizens who serve populations of all cultural backgrounds (Tissingh 2009, Serafin 2010). This need lends a strong interest in fostering global health education (Sarah Rae Easter 2016). Much of the literature in this field focuses on the subtle differences in cultural practices and ideologies of health; however, very few academics have focused on the similarities of health care across nations. Through this narrative reflection piece, I argue that this conversation has inadvertently created implicit biases that limit Western medical students from understanding the breadth of global medicine. By downplaying the commonalities of medicine worldwide we harm the growth of global health practices.