Inside the bruising battle to purge race from a kidney disease calculator

There it was on James Cannon’s lab report, two tiny words: African American.

The words sat next to a number estimating how badly Cannon’s kidneys were failing. And they were definitely failing. His number read 37, less than half of what is considered normal for adults. Oddly, he thought, a different number labeled “if not African American” read even lower: 31.

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