medical training

Understanding the Role of Provider Racial Bias in Medical Training and Clinical Decision Making

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Medical students are often taught to associate race with disease as a method to diagnose and prescribe appropriate medical treatment. Unfortunately, this often leads to inaccurate and misleading assumptions related to race being used in medical decision-making. The role of provider bias and stereotyping in the clinical decision-making process have been extensively studied and suggested as possible contributors to racial health disparities experienced by Black men. Evidence also suggests that current cultural competency programs in medical school are non-inclusive and ineffective. In this brief, I outline a three-tiered approach to address provider bias and ensure that all students are exposed to racial bias training. Intentional efforts to address bias at the institutional level can influence the culture of medical education. Efforts by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) can serve as the model to better serve all communities.