Is Treating All Our Patients "Equally", Equal?

I realize with this post that I may upset some individuals as what I propose and question revolves around the mantra of 'equal treatment for all'.  With regard to medicine, research has been able to identify pockets of populations that have higher risk factors to develop specific pathology - ie. CVD, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity to name a few.

I am wondering if in fact, to treat our patient populations equal, that rather than provide the same interventions, preventative protocols and treatments that we actually have to treat each individual patient differently.  This would entail actually getting to know our patients on a personal level and finding more about them.  We make assumptions all the time about individuals based upon what they are wearing, the cars they drive, the schools they attend, the neighborhood in which they live and the vernacular in which they use.  The link I have posted below gives one perspective for a teenager who had 'outed' themselves and had identified as being a lesbian.  It not only chronicles both the support she has received from her family, but also the difficulty she has had to endure in her school life.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/06/10/lgbt.acceptance/index.html?hpt=hp_bn6


In reading both this article and another article that was recently published, "The Sissy Boy Experiment", I came to question if in fact, we as health care practitioners are missing something in our practice.  Here is a video of CNN's Anderson Cooper discussing what this experiment was about.

What I propose is that we need to understand and practice that each patient who seeks our assistance is, in fact unique.  They come to us with their own values and life experiences.  We know that literature suggests there are risk factors that will place one individual at a higher rate of developing a pathology.  From the literature, we have observed that GLBTQ populations suffer at higher rates of depression and substance abuse; that certain races will acquire a higher rate of pathology over others; and that there are socio-economic factors that tie into childhood obesity.  Perhaps, as clinicians, we need to be sure we are taking the 'whole person' into account when we provide care to our patients, and not make assumptions based upon what we see or hear.  Just as not all African Americans will develop high blood pressure, nor will all children from lower socio-economic status develop obesity, not all individuals who identify as GLBTQ will develop depression or substance abuse issues.  We as clinicians, however, need to be ready to provide the best health care we can to our individual patient based upon them, not our past experiences with other patients, but our experience with this unique patient.