Medical Dominance Medical dominance is an ideology that a certain group or profession, in this case, doctors have a dominance or are at the top of the hierarchal system of the medical field. Medical dominance came about in the formation of the American Medical Association (AMA) when allopathic doctor began to gain power through legislation. This was fairly easy for them because many of the people were white, men from upper class families and had the money to pay lobbyist and were the right gender and race for them to be easily trusted (Weitz, 1996). This power or dominance has affected the treatment of patients and created a medical dominance occupationally. The AMA was founded in 1847. It was a group of allopathic doctors who banded together …show more content…
These values, which were emotional detachment, clinical experience, mastering uncertainty, Mechanistic Model, intervention, and emphasis on acute and rare illness are skills that in the medical world are a part of what makes doctors superior and contributes to the hierarchy, which result in negative effects or consequences for patients who are not male white and affluent. Emotional detachment is the idea of separating emotion and attachment from patients. This can impact people of color (POCs), women or poor people badly because doctors won’t pay attention to the emotional or social consequence of illness and stigma (Weitz, 1996). They also may be culturally insensitive or disrespectful when not understanding the implication of certain treatments, asking certain questions or even in the way the doctor engages with patients. Use of the Mechanical Model also can cause the same result. The Mechanical Model is the idea that the body is a machine or factory and looks at illness as a mechanical breakdown. This also relies on reductionist treatment, which is thinking about each body part as a whole more like the auto mechanics do. This similarly to emotional detachment teaches students to look at patients as if they are not people, which can cause a plethora of issues. This can cause doctors to not think holistically about the health of the patients, so on top of that, the doctors more likely than not, may not understanding the racial, gender based or socioeconomic difference that affect the life of the patient and therefore not know to explore those other areas of their health or wellbeing to improve health outcomes (Weitz, 1996). For example, if a patient has type two diabetes, just treating it with insulin and not considering the other