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Gender equity: Unconscious bias

Strategies to reduce implicit bias

AMA Moving Medicine podcast

The AMA Moving Medicine podcast from the American Medical Association (AMA), has many episodes devoted to women in medicine and the challenges they face, as well as gender equity in general. The podcast aims to help physicians stay in the loop on innovations and emerging issues impacting physicians and public health today. You can access all AMA podcasts at ama-assn.org/podcasts

Episode highlights:

#MeToo in the medical field, part 1: Dr. Reshma Jagsi on harassment

#MeToo in the medical field, part 2: Dr. Tiffani Bell & David Gabor on consequences

Gender inequity: Creating systemic change, part 1

Gender inequity: Creating systemic change, part 2

Women leaders in medicine, part 1

Women leaders in medicine, part 2

The burden of burnout for women in medicine with Vineet Arora, MD

Podcasts about gender bias in medicine

NEJM Interview: Dr. Loren Rabinowitz on the hurdles and frustrations that female medical trainees face in a sexist culture. This interview was recorded on June 13th, 2018.
“Women in medicine, be bold.” Medical World, powerful women are here to stay. Dr. Vineet (Vinny) Arora, Professor of Medicine at University of Chicago, an exemplary Woman in Medicine and Leadership, shares snippets of her own story, valuable career advice to folks at all levels of training, and fascinating data about the gender disparities that exist in training, promotion, and pay. We hope you’ll learn from this episode, whether you have faced or anticipate facing these struggles as a Woman in Medicine or as a member of another marginalized group, or whether you’re an ally and want to learn more about the issue. Podcast released 6th of August, 2018.
Why women get overlooked in healthcare—with Serena Williams. Serena Williams and two leading doctors from the National Institutes of Health and Oregon Health & Science University join us to discuss bias in healthcare: why women are too often misdiagnosed, incorrectly treated, or not taken seriously enough. Podcast was released 11th December, 2018.
"Work-Life Fit: Women In Medicine" Work-Life Balance: is it a myth, or attainable if we could just find the right fit? In this episode, we chat with Dr. Susan Hingle about identifying our work-life priorities and re-evaluating these priorities throughout our lives. Podcast released 13th December, 2018.
Gender & Sexual Harassment in Medicine, #MeToo" Dr. Reshma Jagsi (TIME’S UP Healthcare; UMichigan) schools us on sexual harassment and describes the systemic and cultural changes that need to happen to effect real change. She unpacks the definition of sexual harassment, describes the state of the #MeToo and TIME’s UP movements across the science and medicine fields and highlights how we all can recognize/respond to harassment. Podcast released 22nd July, 2019.

"Making up for being female": Work-life balance, medical time and gender norms for women in the New Zealand senior medical workforce

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) is the professional association and union uniting doctors and dentists in New Zealand. ASMS produced a report titled "Making up for being female": Work-life balance, medical time and gender norms for women in the New Zealand senior medical workforce, which explores issues regarding working part-time and the construction of narratives around what a 'real doctor' does, and much more.

ArticlesDownload the report here.

WebsiteVisit the ASMS website for this and more publications.

Unconscious bias articles

ArticlesGrossman RC. The gender pay gap in medicine: causes and solutions. In: Bellini MI, Papalois VE. Gender equity in the medical profession. IGI Global, 2020. pp. 110-127. Request from the Library
ArticlesLeung LY. Representation of gender equality from the perspective of the medical trainee and its ripple effect: highlighting gender inequality in medical student experiences. In: Bellini MI, Papalois VE. Gender equity in the medical profession. IGI Global, 2020. pp. 29-50. Request from the Library

ArticlesMadsen SR, Andrade MS. Unconscious gender bias: implications for women's leadership development: unconscious gender bias: implications for women's leadership development. Journal of Leadership Studies. 2018;12(1):62-67. Request from the Library

ArticlesBackhus LM, Lui NS, Cooke DT, Bush EL, Enumah Z, Higgins R. Unconscious bias: addressing the hidden impact on surgical education. Thoracic Surgery Clinics. 2019;29(3):259-267.

ArticlesBates S, Lauve-Moon K, McCloskey R, Anderson-Butcher D. The gender by us® toolkit: a pilot study of an intervention to disrupt implicit gender bias. Affilia - Journal of Women and Social Work. 2019;34(3):295-312. Request from the Library

ArticlesBissing MA, Lange EMS, Davila WF, et al. Status of women in academic anesthesiology: a 10-year update. Anesthesia and Analgesia. 2019;128(1):137-143.

ArticlesChadwick A.J, Baruah R. Gender disparity and implicit gender bias amongst doctors in intensive care medicine: a ‘disease’ we need to recognise and treat. Journal of the Intensive Care Society. 2019;(2019).

ArticlesCoe IR, Wiley R, Bekker LG. Organisational best practices towards gender equality in science and medicine. Lancet (London, England). 2019;393(10171):587-593.

ArticlesDicke AL, Safavian N, Eccles JS. Traditional gender role beliefs and career attainment in STEM: a gendered story? Frontiers in Psychology. 2019;10:1053-1053.

ArticlesDoshi TL, Bicket MC. Why aren't there more female pain medicine physicians? Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine. 2018;43(5):516-520.

ArticlesDossa F, Baxter NN. Reducing gender bias in surgery. British Journal of Surgery. 2018;105(13):1707-1709. Request from the Library

ArticlesFeinmann J. Bias against female doctors won’t end until evidence based interventions are mandatory. BMJ. 2019;364. Request from the Library

ArticlesFine C, Sojo V. Women's value: beyond the business case for diversity and inclusion. The Lancet. 2019;393(10171):515-516.

ArticlesHagedorn JM, Pittelkow T, Warner N, et al. Gender of pain medicine leadership and trainees: a survey study. Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine. 2019;2019 Oct 19.

ArticlesHall J. Empowering leadership: counteracting gender bias through focus on individual strengths. The Journal Of Student Leadership, 2019;3(1):49-55.

ArticlesHannawi S, Al Salmi I. Time to address gender inequalities against female physicians. The International Journal of Health Planning and Management. 2018;33(2):532-541. Request from the Library

ArticlesKang SK, Kaplan S. Working toward gender diversity and inclusion in medicine: myths and solutions. Lancet (London, England). 2019;393(10171):579-586.

ArticlesKrishnan N, Szczepura A. The glass cliff effect for women in stem. Lancet (London, England). 2018;391(10137):2320-2321.

ArticlesMcKinley SK, Roberts PL, Ricciardi R. Moving beyond representation as a marker of gender equity. Diseases of the Colon and Rectum. 2019;62(3):269-271. Request from the Library

ArticlesDavids JS, Lyu HG, Hoang CM, et al. Female representation and implicit gender bias at the 2017 american society of colon and rectal surgeons' annual scientific and tripartite meeting. Diseases of the Colon and Rectum. 2019;62(3):357-362. Request from the Library

ArticlesLaver KE, Prichard IJ, Cations M, Osenk I, Govin K, Coveney JD. A systematic review of interventions to support the careers of women in academic medicine and other disciplines. BMJ Open. 2018;8(3):020380.

ArticlesMottiar M, McVicar J. A call to action: gender equity in Canadian anesthesiology. Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal Canadien d'anesthésie. 2019;66(7):755-756.

ArticlesPritlove C, Juando-Prats C, Ala-Leppilampi K, Parsons JA. The good, the bad, and the ugly of implicit bias. Lancet (London, England). 2019;393(10171):502-504.

ArticlesRabinowitz LG. Recognizing blind spots - a remedy for gender bias in medicine? The New England Journal of Medicine. 2018;378(24):2253-2255.

ArticlesSalles A, Awad M, Goldin L, et al. Estimating implicit and explicit gender bias among health care professionals and surgeons. JAMA Network Open. 2019;2(7):196545. Request from the Library

ArticlesShannon G, Jansen M, Williams K, et al. Gender equality in science, medicine, and global health: where are we at and why does it matter? Lancet (London, England). 2019;393(10171):560-569.

ArticlesShillcutt S.K, Arnzen A, Cawcutt K. Bridging the gender gap in critical care practice. International Anesthesiology Clinics. 2019;57(2):132-143.

ArticlesShillcutt SK, Silver JK. Barriers to achieving gender equity. Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia. 2019;33(7):1811-1818.

ArticlesSukhera J, Watling C. A framework for integrating implicit bias recognition into health professions education. Academic Medicine : Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges. 2018;93(1):35-40.

ArticlesTeede HJ. Advancing women in medical leadership. Medical Journal of Australia. 2019;211(9):392-394.

ArticlesTempleton K, Bernstein CA, Sukhera J, et al. Gender-based differences in burnout: issues faced by women physicians. NAM Perspectives. 2019;(20190528). Request from the Library

ArticlesViamonte Ros AM, Markham SM, Wu D, Nicholas PK. A rapid scoping review of gender inequities in the medical profession. Nursing & Health Sciences Research Journal. 2019;2(1):12-20. Request from the Library

ArticlesWilliamson S, Foley M. Unconscious bias training: the ‘silver bullet’ for gender equity?: unconscious bias training. Australian Journal of Public Administration. 2018;77(3):355-359.Request from the Library

ArticlesWynn AT, Correll SJ, Risman BJ. Handbook of the sociology of gender. In: Combating gender bias in modern workplaces. Cham : Springer International Publishing : Springer; 2018:509-521. Request from the Library

ArticlesZimmerman JJ, Bailey H. Moving toward gender equity in critical care medicine. Critical Care Medicine. 2019;47(4):615-617.

ArticlesAubusson K. #39;Just a female doctor': women surgeons battle 'worthless' biases. May 20 2019; Retrieved from: https://www.stuff.co.nz/

Articles​Robins AL. Commentary - implicit bias: it's in all of us. Perspective > Georgetown University Family Medicine; February 07, 2018.

Multimedia

Bowser AD. Bias in the clinical setting can impact patient care [includes video]. Reporting from Chest > Chest Physician: the Newspaper of the American College of Chest Physicians; 2018 October 12, 2018.

Unconscious gender bias videos and links

Dr Susan Moeschler, an anesthesiologist and researcher at Mayo Clinic, shares her research on the challenges women face as medical professionals. This interview originally aired May 12, 2018.


Unconscious gender bias videos

This selection of videos explores the topic of unconscious bias. Some look at bias in the medical profession, others are more general and relate to the effect of unconscious bias on the quality of care for people of different genders or races. Some of the videos include strategies intended to inspire conversation, thought and ultimately change.

Resources available from the Association of American Medical Colleges, as targeted towards medical professionals and how to go about learning about and combating the bias in the professional culture.

The video (above) features an interview with patient communication researcher Stacey Passalacqua, PhD, recorded at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, San Antonio. She describes how physicians and other health care providers may harbour implicit, or unconscious, biases that contribute to health care disparities.


Jennifer Potter, MD, leads a panel discussion on how the hidden curriculum in academic medicine influences the sexual and gender minority health education of medical students, residents and allied health professionals as well as the institutional culture and climate for sexual and gender minorities. Panellists define the concept of a hidden curriculum, explore its positive and negative effects, discuss how it interfaces with the explicit curriculum, and explain the need for the curricular inclusion of the health of these populations.

WebsiteCheck out the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) "Unconscious Bias Resources for Health Professionals", which includes an online (free) seminar "The Science of Unconscious Bias and What To Do About it in the Search and Recruitment Process".


Unconscious bias seeps into nearly every aspect of our everyday lives. Learn how to embrace the bias and bring about change in this compelling TEDx talk by author, speaker and consultant Kristin Maschka, "TEDxPasadenaWomen". In TED conference format but independently organised by a local community.


Harvard University social psychologist Mahzarin Banaji has been researching the disparities between our conscious values and our unconscious attitudes, discovering that our good intentions and our effective behaviour​ are often as different as they can be. In this TEDx talk, ​she uses her famous psychological tool - the Implicit Attitude Test - to expose the hidden biases of a whole theatre. ​This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organised by a local community,TEDxBari.


Anurag Gupta, founder and CEO of Be More America, explains implicit or unconscious bias and how health care providers and others can stop it from negatively affecting people. Learn more about health equity here: http://www.ihi.org/Topics/Health-Equity


Women still face adversity in the professional world. Leaning-in hasn’t been enough to turn the tide of systemic biases, so it’s time to take a different approach. After facing discrimination in her own career, Maureen F. Fitzgerald proposes several much-needed changes to the way we address pink and blue biases in the professional world. Fitzgerald is a Gender Diversity Advisor and the author of several provocative books. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organised by a local community.

ANZCA acknowledges the traditional custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises their unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and seas and their rich contribution to society. We pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past, present, and emerging.

ANZCA acknowledges and respects Māori as the Tangata Whenua of Aotearoa and is committed to upholding the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, fostering the college’s relationship with Māori, supporting Māori fellows and trainees, and striving to improve the health of Māori.