# Lasting effects of brief health equity/implicit bias education for academic clinicians: From learning to action 

## TL;DR

This study found that a short implicit bias training course had lasting effects on academic clinicians' teaching and practice one year later.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates that brief implicit bias education leads to measurable behavior change in academic clinicians over time.

## Key findings

- 62.5% of participants reported the course impacted their teaching.
- 41.4% of participants reported the course impacted their clinical practice.
- 63.8% of participants reported taking at least one action based on the course.

## Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were lasting effects of brief implicit bias education on the teaching and practice of academic clinicians one year after taking the course.

This was a multi-method study. We followed up with a sample of 119 academic clinicians who completed the baseline study December 2019. Recruitment for the current study was conducted between December 2020 and March 2021. Participants responded online to survey questions about whether the course had an impact on their teaching and practice. We categorized qualitative responses to these questions using Prochaska & DiClemente's Stages of Change Model of Behavior Change. Implicit and explicit race and gender bias data were collected at baseline.

Response rate was 48.7% (N=56). Participants were 75.0% female, 66.1% White, and 67.9% were MDs. We found moderate implicit bias favoring White people (Cohen’s d= 0.60), and strong implicit gender bias associating males rather than females with the concept of “career” (Cohen’s d= 0.95). One year after taking the course, 62.5% of participants reported that the content of the course had an impact on their teaching and 41.4% reported the course had an impact on their clinical practice. Across all open-ended questions, 63.8% participants reported having taken at least one action (actual behavior change) in teaching and/or practice due to the course.

There were lasting effects of implicit bias education on participants’ teaching and practice. Brief implicit bias education moved clinicians toward taking action to improve their teaching and practice.