Clinical outcomes improve when patient’s and surgeon’s ethnicity match, study shows

UCLA Fielding School of Public Health's Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa, associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, co-authored research that found clinical outcomes improve when patients and surgeon's ethnicity match.

The study found improved metrics in a subset of patients; when Hispanic surgeons operated on Hispanic patients, for example, it led to reduced length of stay, by half a day, and fewer readmissions to the hospital. 

The study, led by Dr. Evan Michael Shannon, an assistant professor of medicine and clinician-investigator in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, was published by the peer-reviewed journal BMJ Open. Along with his service at the Fielding School of Public Health, Tsugawa, a physician, is also an associate professor of medicine at the Geffen School and is affiliated with the Fielding School's UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

For more information, read the UCLA Health release.