Mayo Study Defining The Role Of Unconscious Doctor Bias In Minority Health Care

Do unconscious biases about race, gender and body shape that students bring with them into medical school carry over when they enter their residencies, thus contributing to the huge and costly disparities in the health outcomes of minorities?

That’s what prominent Mayo researcher Michelle Van Ryn is trying to find out in leading a new federally funded study meant to build on the results of an earlier nationwide probe documenting how medical school training affects students’ biases about racial and sexual minorities and obese patients.