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Implicit Racial Bias in Health Care Clinicians and Its Effect on Clinical Decision Making Across Specialities

Capstone
2025

Repository

Description

Disparities in the health outcomes of Black and White patients continue to be an under-researched topic in medicine in 2025. Implicit bias towards and against certain races by health care clinicians is a potential factor, and therefore it has increased as a variable of interest in the study of social determinants of health. Previous literature from 2015 to 2025 suggests that pro-White bias is present in the healthcare clinician population based on the widely used implicit association test (IAT) and indicates a need for examination into any differences in a clinician’s clinical decision making in their White versus Black patient’s treatment plans for the same diagnoses. The objective of this research is to evaluate whether health care clinicians’ IAT scores are associated with said differences in their medical treatment decisions of Black patients compared to their White counterparts. This is evaluated by investigating whether or not health care clinicians’ scores on the IAT associated with a change in their clinical treatment decisions for Black vs White patients. This is done using a quality assessment tool from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) with a qualitative questionnaire for articles that suggest different degrees of study reliability with an overall rating. Utilizing NHLBI ratings, 10 research articles were selected for a literature review which comprised a total of 1,976 health care clinicians. These clinicians practiced across multiple medical and surgical specialties and made clinical decisions for pediatric fractures, osteoarthritis, acute coronary syndrome, type I diabetes mellitus, acute trauma, sickle cell crisis, pediatric cancer, and hypertension. Their IAT scores and their differences in clinical decisions for Black and White patients underwent qualitative review to assess for a correlation. The findings of the research qualitatively presented moderate pro-White implicit bias, but no significant differences in clinical decision making for patients of the two races studied with the same diagnosis in the majority of the population studied. Therefore, results did not suggest an association between implicit racial bias and clinical decision-making regarding Black vs White patients. This further indicates a need for research on possible confounding variables that may contribute to poorer health outcomes in Black patients. Furthermore, research is required for the study of what aspects of the patient’s health care outcomes are affected by the moderate clinician implicit bias found in this literature review.
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Record Data:

Program :
  • Physician Assistant Studies
Location :
  • Nashville
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