Implicit Bias Training

The following draws on language from a funded grant proposal (2020) and from research that was conducted 2021-2023.

Black women and birthing people experience maternal mortality, morbidity, and preterm birth at higher rates than most other groups in the US. Researchers and policy-makers increasingly understand that racism and other biases within the healthcare system are important causes of these inequities. In 2019, California passed laws meant to reduce racial bias among healthcare providers (Senate Bill 464, Assembly Bill 241). This represented a historic opportunity to improve care for Black women and birthing people

Objective: The MEND study was a cross-disciplinary project that, under the guidance of and in collaboration with a funded community advisory panel: (1) Worked with legal scholars to interpret the history and content of the new laws. (2) Engaged Black women and birthing people and perinatal clinicians in the San Francisco Bay Area to learn how the laws can be implemented to fit their realities and priorities. And (3), with legal and community input, drafted evidence-based guidance for local and state implementation of the new laws.

• Peer-reviewed publications

  • Challenges and Opportunities for Clinician Implicit Bias Training: Insights from Perinatal Care Stakeholders

  • Antibias Efforts in United States Maternity Care: A Scoping Review of the Publicly Funded Health Equity Intervention Pipeline

  • The Potential of Patient Stories to Advance Birth Equity

   

  For Hospitals: Research-based Implicit Bias Training planning guide

   

• Other Reports 

  • Introduced Implicit Bias Training Bills in the United States, 2019–2022

  • Policy Report: Legal analysis, stakeholder insights, & policy recommendations for healthcare provider implicit bias training in California

  • Optimizing perinatal clinician implicit bias training: Findings & recommendations from the MEND Study

  • Preliminary Survey Research on Support for Stakeholder-generated IRB Recommendations Outside of MEND Bay Area Study Region