[Red Cohort] Module 2, 2018-19 Physicians and Implicit Bias

[M Rauf]

Despite the best intentions of physicians to provide equal
treatment to all, disparities linger and may lead to
unacceptable increases in morbidity and mortality for some.
Many factors have helped create these disparities, including
implicit bias, an unintentional, unacknowledged preference
for one group over another. Implicit bias is present in
physicians and correlates with unequal treatment of
patients. We suggest the contribution of implicit bias to
health care disparities could be reduced if all physicians
acknowledged their susceptibility to such bias and deliberately
practiced perspective-taking and individuation. Additionally,
increasing the number of African American/Black
physicians could reduce the impact of implicit bias on some
health care disparities because they exhibit significantly less
implicit race bias. Although challenging, these strategies
may help create a practice of medicine that embodies the
ideals and guiding principles that attract physicians to the
field.

[M Rauf]

Above is the conclusion of the following article:
Physicians and Implicit Bias: How Doctors May Unwittingly
Perpetuate Health Care Disparities
Elizabeth N. Chapman, MD1,5, Anna Kaatz, MA, MPH, PhD4, and Molly Carnes, MD, MS1,2,3,4,5

SOAP
Implicit bias is something we cannot avoid, its a product of our environment, it’s hardwired into us. We can acknowledge it exists and consciously try to avoid it.

[Brett Trzcinski]

To document one of the many topics discussed today at noon: because we can’t erase our implicit bias, we have to do our best to acknowledge it and mitigate any negative impact it may have on delivering optimal care to our patients. The recommendation that I found most helpful from the Chapman et al. article is to obtain personalizing collateral information on the patient that is specific to “individuate” the patient. Such small details, a love of bowling or a pet’s name, help further humanize patients in our memory and improve our faculty in considering their care and health needs beyond their demographic identifiers and the usual information obtained in an H&P. I aim to make this a habit of my medical interviewing.

[Ali]

Very important topic. I wish I was able to attend it yesterday. but I was post call.

[Hibah Ismail]

Bias can be implicit and explicit. Although physicians may think they are not bias towards their patients, studies have shown that implicit bias does exist and does affect patient-physician interaction and treatment options. In our case, given the majority of Afiracn American population that we treat, it is very important that we are aware of the existence of implicit bias in order to be able to objectify our treatment plans and provide better care for our patients.

[Hibah Ismail]

Bias can be implicit and explicit. Although physicians may think they are not bias towards their patients, studies have shown that implicit bias does exist and does affect patient-physician interaction and treatment options. In our case, given the majority of Afriracn American population that we treat, it is very important that we are aware of the existence of implicit bias in order to be able to objectify our treatment plans and provide better care for our patients.

[Khaled Janom]

Doctors are not immune to implicit bias. We should be critical and mindful of our approach to every patient encounter.

[Emilia Khalil]

As physicians, we face the challenges of negative cultural stereotypes that can unconsciously influence our behavior and clinical decision-making. The solution to “implicit bias” begins with identifying and understanding the problem, where we can actively work on changing our mindset and deal with our patients as individuals instead of viewing them as a part of a social group. When we start to think in this way, we can develop individualized approaches to our patients’ care with focused plans on every patient’s needs and concerns and broaden our decision-making capacity.

[Author]

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