Upending a longstanding paradigm, cardiologists embrace ZIP codes, not race, to predict heart risk
Not only is Joseph Wright a physician, he’s the chief health equity officer for the American Academy of Pediatrics. So he was skeptical when, at his annual checkup in January, an alert popped up on his doctor’s computer screen.
A calculator embedded in Wright’s health record had automatically pulled in his data, including the blood test he had done that morning. The calculator’s result indicated his arteries could be narrowing dangerously: He should start taking a statin right away, his doctor said.
