Race-based health care: A comparative study of the use of race-based diagnostics in Europe

Inclusion and diversity are currently topical subjects in health research, care and policy in Europe.

In recent years there have been calls at the national and EU-level for health care professionals, health researchers and policymakers to attend to diversity and inclusion in health care, research and policy.

Here, in addition to gender, migration, sex, religion, language, SES, education, and sexuality, ethnicity and race have become focus points within this so-called inclusion paradigm.

With regard to race, one way in which inclusion and diversity has been approached in health care is to introduce race-based health diagnostics.

These are diagnostic techniques, tools, and calculations in which different actions are included for different 'racial' groups. 'Race' is, however, a highly contested construct, of which the use in research and medicine has been highly debated, especially in the US. The recent introduction and use of race-based health diagnostics in Europe has to date not been critically examined.

The proposed fellowship, RaceCareEurope, will be the first comparative multi-country investigation of the recent introduction and use of race based health diagnostics in general practice (GP) in three different European countries (France, Belgium and the Netherlands), and the effects and consequences of using such race-based diagnostics in Europe.

Ultimately, the aim of the proposed research project is to understand the knowledge sources and scientific considerations by which race-based health technologies are coming to be included in Europe, how such race-based diagnostics are used in daily general practice, and what the individual and societal consequences of this use are.

The insights generated with the proposed project will provide for a much needed foundation to critically reflect on the contemporary use of the construct of race in care and medicine in Europe.