Implicit Bias and Racial Disparities of Care: Recognizing and Addressing the Role of Implicit Bias in Vulnerable Patient Care

Given current events I think many physicians—me included—are going through critical self assessments of our approach to vulnerable patient care.

We interact with new people daily and have to quickly make decisions about their care that can have lasting implications. Yes, we are supposed to be helping them, but what assumptions—our implicit bias—do we carry into the medical encounter that may have undermined their care.  What diagnosis did we forget to consider, test we did not think to order, or medication should we have prescribed?

And while we’re taught about implicit bias in medical school to mitigate this risk, research and the COVID-19 pandemic continue to flag it as an ongoing issue so—clearly—we are not doing enough.

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