トーマス・フィッシャー（Thomas Fisher）は、救急医療と医療格差を専門とする米国の医師、著述家。シカゴのサウスサイドで育ち、ダートマス大学で学んだのち、ハーバード大学で公衆衛生学修士号、シカゴ大学で医学の学位を取得した。シカゴ大学医療センターの救急部門で、生まれ育った地域の診療に携わるとともに、人種や社会構造が健康と医療へのアクセスに及ぼす影響を研究した。地域と医療機関の連携にも取り組み、アフリカ系米国人男性を対象とした診療活動「Project Brotherhood」の設立に参加した。2010年から2011年にはオバマ政権下のホワイトハウス・フェローとして保健福祉省で働き、医療保険制度改革法の規則整備や、人種・民族間の医療格差を縮小する行動計画の策定に携わった。その後も保険事業や医療分野の起業に関与しながら救急診療を続けた。2022年に刊行した『いのちの選別はどうして起こるのか――ER緊急救命室から見たアメリカ』（原題 “The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER”、邦訳2024年）では、コロナ禍の一年を救急医の視点から記録した。限られた時間と資源のなかで患者を診る日々と、患者や家族に宛てた手紙を交え、貧困、人種差別、医療保険制度が診療の現場に持ち込む不平等を検討した。
Thomas Fisher is an American physician and writer specializing in emergency medicine and disparities in health care. Raised on Chicago’s South Side, he studied at Dartmouth College and earned a Master of Public Health from Harvard University and a medical degree from the University of Chicago. In the emergency department at the University of Chicago Medical Center, he served the community where he grew up and studied how race and social structures influence health and access to care. His work included partnerships between communities and medical institutions, and he helped found Project Brotherhood, a clinic serving African American men. From 2010 to 2011, he served as a White House Fellow in the Department of Health and Human Services under the Obama administration, working on Affordable Care Act regulations and the development of an action plan to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities. He subsequently worked in health insurance and health care entrepreneurship while continuing to practice emergency medicine. In “The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER” (2022), translated into Japanese in 2024 as “Inochi no Senbetsu wa Doshite Okoru no ka,” he chronicled a year of emergency medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Combining accounts of treating patients with limited time and resources with letters to patients and family members, he examined how poverty, racial discrimination, and the health insurance system produce inequalities that confront clinicians at the bedside.
