Dr. Angela Marshall works to recognize and reduce bias by bringing awareness to patients and the medical community.

Have you ever felt you were treated differently by a medical professional due to your skin color, age, ethnicity, gender, or for any other reason? If so, you are far from alone.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, body size, and other cultural factors have a significant bearing on whether you will be diagnosed and treated correctly. Health-care providers and their patients are human, and all humans have unconscious biases that affect how we listen, observe, and act. Bias impacts patients when they are at their most vulnerable. Health-care bias can mean the difference not just between suffering and relief, but between life and death.

For the first time, an author with the unique perspective of being one of America’s top doctors, a woman, and African American, candidly addresses the issue of bias in healthcare, sharing personal and patient stories and pragmatic solutions. Dismissed not only explains what so many people feel so profoundly—that the system is working against them. It also reveals what practitioners, patients, and society in general can do to make it better.

Angela Marshall, MD, FACP, is the founder of Comprehensive Women’s Health, Inc., a primary care practice for women. A Board-Certified Internist and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, she has impacted the lives of thousands of women by emphasizing patient-centered empathic listening. She has been repeatedly named ‘Top Doctor’ by the Washingtonian Magazine and a contributing health expert on CNN, Fox News, PBS NewsHour, and OWN. Dr. Marshall currently chairs the Board of Directors for the Black Women’s Health Imperative.

People who hear Dr. Marshall speak walk away with a new way of looking at healthcare. She is available for organizations, corporations, and conferences.