Twelve tips for teaching implicit bias recognition and management

Abstract

Implicit biases describe mental associations that affect our actions in an unconscious manner. We can hold certain implicit biases regarding members of certain social groups. Such biases can perpetuate health disparities by widening inequity and decreasing trust in both healthcare and medical education. Despite the widespread discourse about bias in medical education, teaching and learning about the topic should be informed by empirical research and best practice. In this paper, the authors provide a series of twelve tips for teaching implicit bias recognition and management in medical education. Each tip provides a specific and practical strategy that is theoretically and empirically developed through research and evaluation. Ultimately, these twelve tips can assist educators to incorporate implicit bias instruction across the continuum of medical education to improve inequity and advance justice.

Keywords:

• Clinical
• clinical skills
• communication skills
• professionalism
• instructional design

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The present research was financially supported by National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities [Grant No. K23MD014178].

Notes on contributors

Cristina M. Gonzalez

Cristina M. Gonzalez, MD, MEd Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York, USA.

Monica L. Lypson

Monica L. Lypson, MD, MHPE Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, D.C., USA, Adjunct Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine and Learning health Sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.

Javeed Sukhera

Javeed Sukhera, MD, PhD Associate Professor, Departments of Psychiatry/Paediatrics and Scientist, Centre for Education Research and Innovation, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University Canada.