Racial Bias on Clinical Decisions
When you walk into a doctor’s office, it’s likely the only thing you’re thinking about is your treatment, and if you live in America, your healthcare bill. To most people, racism is not a topic associated with doctors and clinics and pharmacies; racism would be considered a social issue, not a medical one. But the truth is far from that.
A review research on physicians set out to discover the extent of implicit bias in the medical workplace. This study utilized the Implicit Association Test, the most extensively used method to understand racial bias in healthcare. The IAT is a computerized task in which individuals are asked to sort words into their associated categories as fast as possible. The test measures implicit bias by measuring the speed at which people categorize words into a variety of categories, some of which include race (white, black), judgements (good, bad), and stereotypes (athletic, awkward). When individuals associated words with their stereotypical categories (eg. black as bad, white as good), it reveals their implicitly racist assumptions. The speed at which they answer with bias demonstrates the extent to which stereotypes and assumptions are ingrained in their minds. Therefore, studies using this test led to the most accurate results.
Analysing all nine studies that used the IAT, some of the studies found evidence of a relationship between implicit bias and physician clinical decision making. An implicit preference favoring white people was common across physicians, regardless of the niche of the profession. One study found that the providers who demonstrated an implicit preference for white individuals were more likely to treat white patients over black patients. However, though almost all the studies showed that most physicians have implicit preferences towards white people, there was little evidence to show that these biases affected their clinical decision making.
Although it’s tempting to set aside this issue and move on considering there is little evidence of pronounced impacts of implicit bias in clinical practices, we can’t ignore the fact that most physicians have racial preferences towards white individuals. Aside from the obvious problem of racism, another problem is that minorities are less likely to be treated for health issues than their white counterparts. These disparities infringe upon one of the most fundamental human rights: every person, regardless of age, sex, gender, or race, should have equal rights and access to healthcare. Casting aside the discriminatory attitudes of doctors and physicians disproportionately harms minorities and deepens the scar left behind by systemic racism.
It’s been established that the implicit bias towards white individuals in healthcare cannot go unnoticed. Though you may not be able to take significant action to erase these deep-rooted prejudices from people’s minds, you can educate yourself. Learn more about the impacts of the race gap, call out overt racism when you see it, and hopefully in the future, a person of color won’t have to choose between their time, dignity, and health.
