Interest in Treatment of Patients with Sickle Cell Disease: A Brief Survey of Arkansas Physicians.

Abstract

Sikel Cell Diseas (SCD) is a genetic blood disorder that disproportionatley affects the African American population. In a heavily rural state like Arkansas, manging SCD in patients requires having an expensive network of physicians willing to treat them. A survey was faxed to 1312 primary care physicians in Arkansas to determine the physician population currently treating and interested in treating patients with SCD. With a 13% response rate, results show that 21.5% of respondents currently rtreat patients with SCD, 32.6% are interested in treating patients with SCD. Most respondents reported that SCD patients never come to their practice for care.