The Washington Post recently published an article, The Color of Health Care: Diagnosing Bias in Doctors, that discusses the prominent role racial bias plays in determining core quality of care issues.

The article highlights a recent study that proves that that implicit physician bias, measured by the IAT, is the root cause for certain disparities. This study is a first insofar as it settles the oft disputed issue of whether certain disparities in care are caused by implicit bias or how patients of color present to physicians.
The studies cite is: Green, A.R., Carney, D.R., Pallin, D.J., Ngo, L.H., Raymond, K.L., Iezzoni, L.I., Banaji, M.R. (2007). Implicit Bias among Physicians and its Prediction of Thrombolysis Decisions for Black and White Patients. Journal of Internal Medicine.

The REP would like to thank Jen Flory of the Western Center On Law And Poverty for bringing the article to our attention.