BLOOM Study

Emerging evidence supports that Black women and their babies have better health outcomes when seen by Black health care providers. The primary goal of the BLOOM Study is to understand Black families’ experience in primary care broadly, and how the BLOOM Clinic, which provides racially concordant, holistic pediatric primary care to Black families at Children's Hospital Oakland, might impact the wellbeing (physical, mental, and social) of young children (0-3 years old) and their families.

Examples of the types of data that will be collected and followed:

• Family engagement in primary care

• Health outcomes and behaviors

• Rates of screening for and addressing social drivers of health, ACEs, child developmental progress, caregiver depression

• Caregiver trust of the medical system

• Family experiences of racial discrimination while receiving medical care

• Expectation of a college-bound future

 

Evaluation of the clinic is crucial to our understanding of what works and what can be improved in the BLOOM Clinic. Through exploring the practices of the BLOOM Clinic at Claremont Primary Care, we hope to be able to provide data on Black families’ experience in pediatric primary care generally and the potential impact of a racially concordant pediatric primary care with wraparound services on family health and wellness. BLOOM Study findings can inform refining of the intervention and the development of similar equity-promoting programs and services in California, and around the country.

Foundational Articles:

  1. Jetty A, Jabbarpour Y, Pollack J, Huerto R, Woo S, Petterson S. Patient-Physician Racial Concordance Associated with Improved Healthcare Use and Lower Healthcare Expenditures in Minority Populations. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2022 Feb;9(1):68-81. doi: 10.1007/s40615-020-00930-4.

  2. Takeshita J, Wang S, Loren AW, et al. Association of Racial/Ethnic and Gender Concordance Between Patients and Physicians With Patient Experience Ratings. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(11):e2024583. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.24583

  3. Saha S, Komaromy M, Koepsell TD, Bindman AB. Patient-Physician Racial Concordance and the Perceived Quality and Use of Health Care. Arch Intern Med. 1999;159(9):997–1004. doi:10.1001/archinte.159.9.997

  4. Greenwood BN, Hardeman RR, Huang L, Sojourner A. Physician–patient racial concordance and disparities in birthing mortality for newborns. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2020 Sep 1;117(35):21194-200.