Dr. Vinicius Moreira, the lead author, called for urgent actions from governments and healthcare systems to address these alarming statistics and improve healthcare access for minority populations.

Specific recommendations to reduce these disparities include enhancing preventive measures, optimizing patients' health pre-surgery, and improving communication protocols among EMS providers.

Additionally, Black patients were found to be 22% more likely to die in the hospital after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery, further illustrating the impact of these disparities.

Research presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2024 annual meeting highlights significant racial disparities in pain management, revealing that Black patients recovering from major surgery receive fewer multimodal analgesia options compared to their white counterparts.

The study found that Black patients are 29% less likely to receive multimodal analgesia, which combines multiple pain management methods, and are 74% more likely to be prescribed opioid pills.

Previous studies have indicated that Black patients often experience inadequate pain management in emergency settings, exacerbating these disparities.

Historical research underscores that racial biases in pain assessment and treatment recommendations persist in healthcare, contributing to these inequities.

The study analyzed data from 482 Black adults and 2,460 White adults who underwent thoracic or abdominal surgeries at Johns Hopkins Hospital between July 2016 and July 2021.

The research also analyzed data from over 1 million CABG patients in the U.S. between 2016 and 2021, revealing ongoing disparities in cardiovascular healthcare.

Lead author Dr. Christian Mpody emphasized that current expansions of helicopter ambulance programs have not achieved equitable care across different races and ethnicities.

Another study presented at the same conference indicated that Black and Brown trauma patients are less likely to receive timely helicopter transport in emergencies, despite its associated survival benefits.

Timely helicopter transport can significantly increase survival rates for trauma patients during the critical 'golden hour' following an injury.