(Reuters Health)—Male scientists are more likely than their female counterparts to use superlatives, such as first or novel, to describe their work, a new study suggests, and this disparity might contribute to other professional gender gaps, the authors say. The study team analyzed the language used in more than 6 million papers in peer-reviewed medical…
Medical Professionals Link the Word ‘Career’ with Men
(Reuters Health)—Researchers who examined implicit and explicit gender biases in the U.S. medical community found professionals of both genders are more likely to associate the word career with men and the word family with women. And U.S. surgeons broadly see surgery as a man’s career and family medicine as a woman’s field, the researchers also…
Ethics Forum: Beware Your Intellectual Conflicts of Interest
A senior rheumatologist with extensive experience in the management of systemic lupus erythematosus is asked to help draft clinical guidelines for the treatment of lupus nephritis. Neither she nor her family members receive grant funding nor does she consult with any pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies. She does have strong clinical opinions based on current evidence…
Medical Schools Address Bias, Diversity, Inclusion in Variety of Ways
“What are you?” A faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine posed this question to a resident while attending rounds. Both were portraying a scene involving micro-aggression during Differences Matter, a three-day orientation for first-year medical students. On the program’s first day, students are introduced to unconscious bias and…
Racial Bias Found in Pain Assessment, Management, Treatment Recommendations by Clinicians
In the world of evidence-based medicine, basing diagnosis and treatment decisions on belief instead of data seems anachronistic. And yet … clinicians are human, and humans live in culture, and culture is formed by beliefs, and beliefs (consciously or unconsciously) drive perception and, often, action. So a new study shining a light on racial bias…