Regular readers of Evidence eMended will recall my end of the year posting on implicit bias in physicians. At that time, I explained implicit bias as ".. the unintended, somewhat submerged bias in all of us that can result in disparities in the health care we provide." I spoke about my early experiences with Project Implicit, a research site with testing aimed at helping us all recognize our own implicit biases, with the hope that this increased self-awareness will allow us to control our biases such that they don't interfere with good patient care. I also promised to follow up on this posting to tell you about my ongoing experiences with Project Implicit testing.
I haven't been as zealously devoted to taking a weekly bias test as I had planned, but by now I've completed several modules. I won't tell you my findings exactly, other than to say I haven't been overly surprised; I expected that, like many people, I had a modest degree of implicit bias in some areas. What I have been most pleased with, however, is the experience of going through the test modules. I can see how the researchers used the rapid response images to collect data on my recognition patterns, and I found myself very excited to complete each module and see how my floundering to categorize various images produces summary results.
In a sense, then, it's actually the process of interacting with the modules that has been helpful to me, and thus I remain very strong in my advice to readers to join me in the experience. It's never too late for New Year's resolutions - why not start now at Project Implicit!
Also, I do urge you to go back to my December 29 blog posting to look at the comment from Keyon Mitchell, a medical student at UC Davis who is pushing for implicit bias to become a staple in medical student education.