Implicit biases are part of human nature and normal brain functioning yet are knowable and treatable. We must strip the shame and blame from implicit bias so that we may own them and counter them to optimize our patients’ and communities’ health.

Race is a social construct. Many of our understandings of what race is and is not are based not on biologic differences between human beings but rather on concepts designed on maintaining societal, political, and economic hierarchies and norms. The definition of race in the United States has changed over time to meet those changing needs.

We cannot adequately treat health inequities without understanding their origins and causes. Just as best practice teaches us we should not make a diagnosis or treatment plan without taking a thorough history, understanding the history of race in medicine and society at large, and it’s consequences, is essential to eliminating race-based and other health inequities.

Individuals and organizations do not need to be experts in order to critically examine their own thoughts, actions, and outcomes. It is only through intentional work, and intentionally focusing our attention on the margins and the marginalized, that we will make progress toward equitable health.

“Every system is perfectly designed to achieve exactly the results it gets” (Dr. Don Berwick). As such our healthcare and wider institutions have been designed to result in inequity. We must redesign them - clinically, structurally, and culturally.

We all come to the conversation of racism, implicit biases, and health equity at different places. My content is designed to speak to individuals new to these concepts as well as those who are further along in their trajectory of understanding.