What Is Implicit Gender Bias in Healthcare?
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Implicit gender bias in healthcare is another barrier to providing equitable care for all. Implicit gender bias manifests in different ways with healthcare providers taking unconscious actions to the detriment of certain genders. The bias can lead to chronic diseases like heart disease and certain cancer types going undiagnosed – even when the patient’s lab work would result in a diagnosis in a different gender. Specific cancer types may be dismissed as unrealistic in certain genders, and women and some Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) groups become underrepresented in clinical trials due to implicit gender bias and other factors.
Consequences of Implicit Gender Bias in Healthcare
One prime example of implicit gender bias in healthcare is the phenomenon of cardiovascular disease being misdiagnosed and undertreated in women. Healthcare professionals continue to underestimate cardiovascular disease risk in women, thus resulting in less research about cardiovascular disease in women and lower cardiovascular disease survival rates. In a survey that examined heart health assessments, only 40 percent of women reported receiving a heart health assessment as part of their annual wellness examinations.
Another principal example of implicit gender bias is dismissing the possibility of breast cancer in men and the underrepresentation of men with breast cancer in clinical trials. Though women have a higher rate of breast cancer, U.S. breast cancer rates also include up to 0.95 percent of cases in men. And breast cancer case rates in U.S. men are increasing. Higher percentages of men need representation in breast cancer clinical trials to improve efficacy of treatments.
And examining research findings for women and some LGBTQ groups, they are also underrepresented in clinical trials. For cancer treatments and other treatments to be optimized for their efficacy, they must have adequate representation by women and LGBTQ groups to refine clinical research on specific treatments.
Solutions to Reduce Implicit Gender Bias in Healthcare
Actions can be taken to help work toward equitable healthcare for all genders, including:
Routine surveys of the healthcare experiences of underdiagnosed and underrepresented women, men, and LGBTQ populations must continue to gauge the rates of those who still experience implicit gender bias
Healthcare professionals can take surveys to gauge their own implicit bias to keep themselves accountable for their unconscious biases
Patient advocates and healthcare professionals can advocate for increased research funding to help shine the light on implicit gender bias in healthcare and closing the care gap
Healthcare professionals can encourage underdiagnosed and underrepresented gender groups to participate in clinical trials for more refined treatments
Healthcare professionals can practice cultural humility, educate themselves on gender groups they lack knowledge about, and commit to a culture of inclusion
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Sources
Chloe Fitzgerald and Samia Hurst. Implicit Bias in Healthcare Professionals: A Systematic Review. BMC Medical Ethics website. Accessed February 28, 2022. https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12910-017-0179-8
The Mounting Crisis in Women’s Heart Health. Columbia University Irving Medical Center website. Accessed February 28, 2022. https://columbiasurgery.org/news/mounting-crisis-women-s-heart-health
Kelsey L. Corrigan, Walker Mainwaring, Austin B. Miller, Timothy A. Lin, Amit Jethanandani, Andres F. Espinoza, Matt Piotrowski, C. David Fuller, Michael C. Stauder, Simona F. Shaitelman, George H. Perkins, Wendy A. Woodward, Sharon H. Giordano, Benjamin D. Smith, Ethan B. Ludmir. Exclusion of Men From Randomized Phase III Breast Cancer Clinical Trials. The Oncologist. Accessed February 28, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1634/theoncologist.2019-0871
Eudocia Lee and Patrick Wen. Gender and Sex Disparity in Clinical Trials. ESMO Open website. Accessed February 28, 2022. https://www.esmoopen.com/article/S2059-7029(20)32682-X/fulltext#relatedArticles
