Many researchers have studied patient--physician communication and documented the tensions and misunderstandings often seen in this important process. But these concerns are far greater when the patients are minorities or don't understand English well, and when doctors aren't equipped to explain the intricacies of care to people whose cultural beliefs may make American medicine a mystery.
Award-winning filmmakers Maren Grainger-Monsen, M.D., and Julia Haslett explore these issues in a series of films called Worlds Apart, which document the experiences of minority Americans and patients from other countries in the U.S. health care system. This unique project, made with partial support from The Commonwealth Fund, dramatizes communication between patients and their doctors, tensions between modern medicine and cultural beliefs, and the ongoing burdens of racial and ethnic discrimination.
This film features Robert Phillips, a 29-year-old black man, who has been waiting three years for a kidney transplant. He's frustrated with the medical bureaucracy and feels that black patients may not be readily referred for a new kidney because physicians think "they're just going to ruin it anyway."
For more information on these films, please visit The Commonwealth Fund website at www.cmwf.org
