Racial Disparities in Rheumatology Through the Lens of Critical Race Theory.

According to critical race theory (CRT), racism is ubiquitous in society. In the field of medicine, systems of racism are subtly interwoven with patient care, medical education, and medical research. Public health critical race praxis (PHCRP) is a tool that allows researchers to apply CRT to research. This article discusses the application of CRT and PHCRP to 3 race-related misconceptions in rheumatology: (1) giant cell arteritis is rare in non-White populations; (2) Black patients are less likely to undergo knee replacement because of patient preference; and (3) HLA-B*5801 screening should only be performed for patients of Asian descent.