Kevin Mitchell on unconscious bias

• started with intersectionality (he trained as a pharmacist, then physician, is a veteran, from Miami, a husband, a father, a black man, –also big Harry Potter fan)

• “Code Switching”

  • switching language and behavior based on context
  • learned from mother to purposefully code switch
  • “don't be a stereotype…” (or statistic - non-grad, etc.)
  • data - Race, Ethnicity, and NIH Research Awards “2011 Science Mag, Ginther et al. : if top-tier scores, funded equally well, but below upmost echelons people who were black or of Asian decent less likely to be funded
  • Racial Disparities in Pain Management of Children With Appendicitis in Emergency Departments (JAMA, Goyal et al.) : children of color less likely to receive analgesia for severe pain
  • Assimilative techniques: passing (concealing: appear as member of dominant group), temporary passing (projecting), covering (downplay salience)

• Consequences of code switching

  • imposter syndrome, burden of duality, burnout
  • gift and curse: street credibility vs professionalism; empathy vs sympathy; pt trust vs colleague comfort

• how to respond to racist/sexist comments (this is a tl;dr of bystander training)

  • take note
  • stabilize patient
  • address the issue
  • stabilize victim

• other notes:

  • his “solutions” slide was blank when he first started giving this talk, now has several ideas and many angles – the process of gaining hope and strategy can definitely start with no concrete solutions, but if it's important, keep working at it, get some friends, ideas will come
  • look into race-based GFR, its history and problems

last updated: 2020-06-30