The Biases We Don’t Know We Hold

An excellent way to address bias in research and elsewhere in medicine is the use of checklists that include action items, such as meaningfully incorporating people of diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds or other related components. This can keep research team members and clinicians alert to the possibility of implicit bias on their part and that of potential research subjects.

“Otherwise, you’re only going to ask the questions you already know the answers to. If you have a list in front of you, something’s going to surprise you because you have followed that checklist,” Dr. Reeves says.

Vanessa Caceres is a medical writer in Bradenton, Fla.