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In this book, we will explore the impact of bias on the experiences of healthcare providers, learners preparing to be providers, and patients in the healthcare setting.

All human beings have biases, which seem to be a type of primal defense mechanism that is hard-wired. Implicit or unconscious biases deal with thoughts and behaviors that happen without our awareness and outside of our control; they are triggered by social judgments and inferences which we often do not notice as having an impact on our cognition.    These judgments and inferences are in turn triggered by personal appearance or other obvious characteristics of an individual, often compounded by social stereotypes regarding those characteristics.  Having formed an unconscious bias regarding an individual, we then may tend to use information learned later to confirm our preexisting beliefs.¹

Experts have found that time pressure, fatigue, stress, and information overload increase our tendency to use unconscious biases to shortcut our decision making.¹ These factors are prevalent parts of the medical landscape for patients and providers.

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