Physicians and Implicit Bias: An Opportunity for Education

Implicit bias is a phenomenon that is prevalent in virtually all aspects of society. It refers to the tendency of individuals to harbor certain biases or prejudices about certain groups without being consciously aware of those feelings.
Implicit, or unconscious, bias could cause a well-intentioned female college admissions officer to subconsciously favor female applicants over male or could lead a white police officer to treat people of color differently than white people.
Writing for NBD News, Elizabeth Chuck discusses the possible presence of unconscious bias in the medical industry, specifically as it relates to pregnancies among African-American women. “The racial disparity in U.S. maternal mortality rates is one of the severest in all of women’s health,” she writes. “Researchers don’t have a clear explanation for why.”
Chuck cites some statistics to bolster this assertion: “Each year in the United States, about 700 women die as a result of pregnancy or delivery issues — while 50,000 experience severe complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Black women are three to four times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related causes nationwide; in New York City, they are 12 times more likely to die.”
Chuck notes that, statistically, there are some factors that lead to pregnancy complications that are more common in black women—such as obesity and hypertension—and black women are also less likely to have access to preventive care, high-quality hospitals, and safe housing during pregnancy.
However, data suggest that factors that would seem to even the playing field, such as higher levels of income and education, don’t seem to have an impact on the experience of black women.
The conclusion many have reached is that implicit bias is to blame for the disparate treatment of women of color. Implicit bias is notoriously difficult to address, precisely because people are unaware of the very biases we’d like to eliminate.
It’s likely that very few doctors harbor conscious biases against patients based on their race or ethnicity; however, unconscious bias training can go a long way in simply helping physicians become aware of the potential for them to make decisions or respond to others based on implicit, or unconscious, bias.
It’s an important first step to addressing the problem.