Disparities in peripheral artery disease care: A review and call for action.

Peripheral artery disease (PAD), the pathophysiologic narrowing of arterial blood vessels of the lower leg due to atherosclerosis, is a highly prevalent disease that affects more than 6 million individuals 40 years and older in the United States, with sharp increases in prevalence with age. Morbidity and mortality rates in patients with PAD range from 30% to 70% during the 5- to 15-year period after diagnosis and PAD is associated with poor health outcomes and reduced functionality and quality of life. Despite advances in medical, endovascular, and open surgical techniques, there is striking variation in care among population subgroups defined by sex, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, with concomitant differences in preoperative medication optimization, amputation risk, and overall health outcomes. We reviewed studies from 1995 to 2021 to provide a comprehensive analysis of the current impact of disparities on the treatment and management of PAD and offer action items that require strategic partnership with primary care providers, researchers, patients, and their communities. With new technologies and collaborative approaches, optimal management across all population subgroups is possible.

Proposing Abolition Theory for Carceral Medical Education.

Medical schools, like all institutions, are conservative since they seek to maintain and expand on their accomplishments. Stakes are high in carceral medicine given the risks of replicating the inhumane social conditions that exist within prisons and allow prisons to exist. Given the increasing number of partnerships between state and municipal carceral systems with academic medical centers, medical schools must consider which guiding theory they will use to teach carceral medicine. The interdisciplinary theory of prison abolition is best fit for the task of training medical students to think about the long term goals of societal change and public health.