A directory listing Black doctors has been sued.

The Black Doctors Directory offers a comprehensive list of Black doctors in southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. Its website mentions that the directory covers specialties such as family medicine, allergy and immunology, neurology, gynecology, and hematology, and highlights doctors who provide high-quality and culturally competent care.

“Racial health disparities contribute to poorer outcomes for Black residents, regardless of their education, income, or insurance. Research shows that racial congruence in healthcare—when patients are treated by doctors who share their race—improves outcomes for African American patients,” a statement on the directory’s webpage reads.

The directory was launched by Pennsylvania’s only Black talk radio station, WURD Radio, and is presented through a partnership between Penn Medicine and the Consortium of DEI Health Educators. However, the directory is now facing legal scrutiny due to a lawsuit alleging violations of Pennsylvania law, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. According to the Federal Register, these laws prohibit discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability in certain healthcare programs and activities.

The national medical association Do No Harm has filed a lawsuit against multiple entities, including the University of Pennsylvania Health System, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania itself, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, the Consortium of DEI Health Educators, and WURD Radio, LLC.

Do No Harm encompasses physicians, nurses, medical students, and patients who aim for politics to be removed from medical education, research, and clinical practice, its website mentions. Do No Harm opposes diversity, equity, and inclusion(DEI) initiatives and youth-focused gender ideology, arguing that these efforts hinder rather than promote equitable access to healthcare for all.

”Racial concordance states that patients do better when they are the same race as their doctors and that they do worse when they are a different race from their doctors,” the lawsuit read. “This bunk ideology encourages patients and doctors to treat each other not as individuals but as components of racial groups. It sows distrust between patients and doctors who are different races. And it prioritizes race over medical skill, judgment, and experience.”

The lawsuit also mentions that the defendants have cited racial disparities in particular areas of Philadelphia, attributing the issue to the “failure of non-Black doctors.”

“Defendants believe that ‘racial congruence’ would ‘improv[e] outcomes for African American patients,’” the lawsuit read. “Defendants created the Black Doctors Directory. The Directory collects and shares information about doctors in southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware with the goal of making it easier for Black patients to find Black doctors. Non-Black doctors are excluded. No matter how regularly they treat Black patients. No matter how sincerely they care for all patients. And no matter how much they improve their patients’ health.”

Do Not Harm states that one of its members, a white dermatologist practicing in southeastern Pennsylvania with ties to Penn Medicine, referred to as Member A in the court documents, was excluded from the directory despite serving various Black patients. If given a court order, Member A aims to be listed within the directory, as it will also allow him equal opportunity to be found by potential patients.

“Member A finds it hurtful and disappointing that Defendants consider him to be less equipped or less capable of providing empathy and depth to Black patients. Member A is similarly dismayed by Defendants’ unfounded suggestion that his black patients won’t do as well because he is not Black. And he is similarly disappointed that he is not welcome or eligible to add his name on a Directory that reaches a large swath of the Philadelphia population,” the document read.

Do Not Harm is seeking resolutions such as a declaratory judgment that states the Black Doctors Directory violates Title VI, Section 1557, and Pennsylvania law and a permanent injunction that will not permit the directory to reject doctors based on race, among others.