Medical education, race and health: what is missing for the construction of an antiracist pedagogical project?

Introduction: The hegemony of medical education is based on so-called universalistic and egalitarian principles. This paper questions such principles, considering the heterogeneity and multiplicity imbricated in medical know-how in light of historical, social and loco-regional health conditions. To understand medical knowledge in that complex panorama, the production of knowledge must privilege equity in health in the development of pedagogical projects and undergraduate curricula. Do these projects and curricula deal with care for social minorities properly? In Brazil, black people constitute the main social group affected by that social reality. In the Northeast region of the country, that population usually faces several difficulties to access proper medical care. Objective: This paper aims to analyze the pedagogical projects of undergraduate medical programs in the Northeast of Brazil and their interfaces with contents that contribute to medical training to address the health inequities of the black population. Methodology: This is an exploratory, descriptive and cross-sectional study. It analyzes 23 pedagogical projects from 13 federal public undergraduate medical programs at universities in the Brazilian Northeast. Data were correlated with scientific findings and theoretical references that address the health of black people and medical education. Results: The studied programs contain compulsory and optional courses which contextualize social race in health. They present a historical and sociocultural understanding of blackness to medical students. However, in a practical sense there are several gaps, including a lack of cross-sectional approaches, of proposals for internships and limited promotion of community outreach programs and institutional policies to encourage racial issues. This reveals the little value ascribed to the field of experience for understanding racialized health, and shows a lack of specific practices for the health of the black population, reducing medical capacity to interpret situations, practices and behaviors in racialized contexts. Conclusion: This paper shows that the promotion of an antiracist medical education requires a training based on dialogical, humanistic, critical-reflexive praxis regarding the health of the black population. It is necessary to correlate theories and skills, competencies and care practices, based on racialized knowledge for the construction of pedagogical projects for undergraduate medical progra