Editor of JAMA to Step Down Following Racist Incident

The JAMA family of journals added four new titles under Dr. Bauchner’s leadership, and expanded to include podcasts, videos and new, shorter article types. But critics noted that the journals rarely addressed structural racism in medicine, and more often published papers linking health disparities to socioeconomic or biological factors.

Dr. Bauchner’s exit offered the journals a chance to improve, said Dr. Mary Bassett, professor of the practice of health and human rights at Harvard University.

“Medical journals have helped build the racist idea that races have intrinsic differences that have a bearing on health,” Dr. Bassett said. Journals are “challenged to embrace, not only accept, racism as a health issue.”

Dr. Bauchner told The New York Times last month that JAMA had published “more than 100 articles on issues such as social determinants of health, health care disparities and structural racism over just the last five years.” He also noted that JAMA accepted only a tiny fraction of the manuscripts it had received.

He said in the statement on Tuesday that the journal would be better served by his resignation. “The best path forward for the JAMA Network, and for me personally, is to create an opportunity for new leadership at JAMA,” he said.

In an editorial published in JAMA on Tuesday, colleagues at the journal lauded Dr. Bauchner’s leadership, saying he “has left an indelible legacy of progress, innovation and excellence in medical journalism.”

The A.M.A. said it has begun a search for Dr. Bauchner’s replacement. The journal’s executive editor, Dr. Phil Fontanarosa, will serve as interim editor in chief.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/health/jama-bauchner-racism.html