This educational event will address the acute care of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) by identifying some emergent presentations as well as highlighting some of the barriers to care patients with SCD may face. These barriers primarily include skepticism and bias which can lead to missed or undertreated devastating sequelae. Patients can also sometimes face challenges accessing, establishing, and maintaining care with physicians.

Microaggressions are commonplace behaviors and attitudes toward others that arise from conscious or unconscious bias. These events negatively affect the clinical learning environment and have been implicated in the perpetuation of disparities in health and healthcare.

This course empowers physicians to assist patients in accessing resources and other sources of community support to address contextual factors complicating their care. This presentation is designed to provide participants with both a scaffold for identifying contextual factors during a medical encounter and a practical resource that can aid in addressing them.