Eliminating Explicit and Implicit Biases in Health Care: Evidence and Research Needs

Course overview

This course explores explicit and implicit biases in health care and provides an overview of the terminology, the tools used to measure implicit bias, the evidence for implicit bias in health care, the impact of implicit bias in health care, the impact of interventions designed to reduce implicit bias, the key structural factors affecting implicit bias, and the relationship between implicit bias and structural inequities. The course suggests that implicit bias interventions alone are not enough to reduce biased decision making and health disparities and should be accompanied by other systemic interventions both inside and outside the health care system.