Elevating equity: advancing diversity and inclusivity through trialing bias reduction tools in the general internal medicine program resident application process

Abstract Background Decades of medical data show worse patient outcomes among racial and gender minorities due to implicit, explicit, and structural biases. Increasing representation of marginalized groups among care providers is imperative to help address this. Limited literature exists on bias awa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Dominic Mudiayi, Farha Shariff, Lindsay Bridgland, Pamela Mathura, Jennifer Ringrose
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2024-11-01
Series:BMC Medical Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-06244-x
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1846171833799278592
author Dominic Mudiayi
Farha Shariff
Lindsay Bridgland
Pamela Mathura
Jennifer Ringrose
author_facet Dominic Mudiayi
Farha Shariff
Lindsay Bridgland
Pamela Mathura
Jennifer Ringrose
author_sort Dominic Mudiayi
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Background Decades of medical data show worse patient outcomes among racial and gender minorities due to implicit, explicit, and structural biases. Increasing representation of marginalized groups among care providers is imperative to help address this. Limited literature exists on bias awareness strategies for interviewers during the selection of applicants to General Internal Medicine (GIM) programs in Canada. This study examines the trial of bias reduction tools to increase interviewers’ awareness of implicit biases. Methods The Model of Improvement framework guided the trail of an instructional video, the adapted implicit association test (IAT), and a paper awareness tool (PAT) to increase interviewers’ awareness of implicit biases during the University of Alberta’s GIM applicant selection. An anonymous online survey was disseminated to physician interviewers. Descriptive statistics (percentages) and a modified sentiment analysis was completed. Results 10 of 14 interviewers completed the survey. Respondents reported an increased awareness of using bias reduction tools (IAT, 25%; video, 71%; PAT, 67%) to inform them on their implicit biases. The future use of IAT, video, and PAT was supported by 50%, 71%, and 67% of interviewers, respectively. Conclusions Interviewers prefer the instructional video and PAT over the IAT. Textual responses suggest existing concerns for biases inherent to the interview process yet 70% (7/10) of respondents believe that interviews should have a weighting of 50% towards final ranking of candidates. As many institutions continue to rely on interviews to evaluate candidates, our findings indicate the need for a national study to develop a framework to mitigate inherent biases during interviewing of candidates.
format Article
id doaj-art-a0ccb3d2e51243688f072f5de7f48c1c
institution Kabale University
issn 1472-6920
language English
publishDate 2024-11-01
publisher BMC
record_format Article
series BMC Medical Education
spelling doaj-art-a0ccb3d2e51243688f072f5de7f48c1c2024-11-10T12:30:25ZengBMCBMC Medical Education1472-69202024-11-012411910.1186/s12909-024-06244-xElevating equity: advancing diversity and inclusivity through trialing bias reduction tools in the general internal medicine program resident application processDominic Mudiayi0Farha Shariff1Lindsay Bridgland2Pamela Mathura3Jennifer Ringrose4Division of General Internal Medicine, University of AlbertaFaculty of Education, Office of the Dean, University of AlbertaDivision of General Internal Medicine, University of AlbertaDepartment of Medicine, University of AlbertaDivision of General Internal Medicine, University of AlbertaAbstract Background Decades of medical data show worse patient outcomes among racial and gender minorities due to implicit, explicit, and structural biases. Increasing representation of marginalized groups among care providers is imperative to help address this. Limited literature exists on bias awareness strategies for interviewers during the selection of applicants to General Internal Medicine (GIM) programs in Canada. This study examines the trial of bias reduction tools to increase interviewers’ awareness of implicit biases. Methods The Model of Improvement framework guided the trail of an instructional video, the adapted implicit association test (IAT), and a paper awareness tool (PAT) to increase interviewers’ awareness of implicit biases during the University of Alberta’s GIM applicant selection. An anonymous online survey was disseminated to physician interviewers. Descriptive statistics (percentages) and a modified sentiment analysis was completed. Results 10 of 14 interviewers completed the survey. Respondents reported an increased awareness of using bias reduction tools (IAT, 25%; video, 71%; PAT, 67%) to inform them on their implicit biases. The future use of IAT, video, and PAT was supported by 50%, 71%, and 67% of interviewers, respectively. Conclusions Interviewers prefer the instructional video and PAT over the IAT. Textual responses suggest existing concerns for biases inherent to the interview process yet 70% (7/10) of respondents believe that interviews should have a weighting of 50% towards final ranking of candidates. As many institutions continue to rely on interviews to evaluate candidates, our findings indicate the need for a national study to develop a framework to mitigate inherent biases during interviewing of candidates.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-06244-xBiasDiversityEquityAwarenessInterviewResident selection
spellingShingle Dominic Mudiayi
Farha Shariff
Lindsay Bridgland
Pamela Mathura
Jennifer Ringrose
Elevating equity: advancing diversity and inclusivity through trialing bias reduction tools in the general internal medicine program resident application process
BMC Medical Education
Bias
Diversity
Equity
Awareness
Interview
Resident selection
title Elevating equity: advancing diversity and inclusivity through trialing bias reduction tools in the general internal medicine program resident application process
title_full Elevating equity: advancing diversity and inclusivity through trialing bias reduction tools in the general internal medicine program resident application process
title_fullStr Elevating equity: advancing diversity and inclusivity through trialing bias reduction tools in the general internal medicine program resident application process
title_full_unstemmed Elevating equity: advancing diversity and inclusivity through trialing bias reduction tools in the general internal medicine program resident application process
title_short Elevating equity: advancing diversity and inclusivity through trialing bias reduction tools in the general internal medicine program resident application process
title_sort elevating equity advancing diversity and inclusivity through trialing bias reduction tools in the general internal medicine program resident application process
topic Bias
Diversity
Equity
Awareness
Interview
Resident selection
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-06244-x
work_keys_str_mv AT dominicmudiayi elevatingequityadvancingdiversityandinclusivitythroughtrialingbiasreductiontoolsinthegeneralinternalmedicineprogramresidentapplicationprocess
AT farhashariff elevatingequityadvancingdiversityandinclusivitythroughtrialingbiasreductiontoolsinthegeneralinternalmedicineprogramresidentapplicationprocess
AT lindsaybridgland elevatingequityadvancingdiversityandinclusivitythroughtrialingbiasreductiontoolsinthegeneralinternalmedicineprogramresidentapplicationprocess
AT pamelamathura elevatingequityadvancingdiversityandinclusivitythroughtrialingbiasreductiontoolsinthegeneralinternalmedicineprogramresidentapplicationprocess
AT jenniferringrose elevatingequityadvancingdiversityandinclusivitythroughtrialingbiasreductiontoolsinthegeneralinternalmedicineprogramresidentapplicationprocess