New Study Shows Racial Bias In The Way Doctors Talk To Patients

A new study shows there’s racial bias in how doctors talk to Black patients and female patients.

The mistreatment and neglect of Black people have taken place in the medical and health industry for years. A new study done by assistant professor David Markowitz, psychology of language researcher in the School of Journalism and Communication, noticed that there is a significant difference in how doctors speak to Black women.

“What was most surprising is how clear the signals were in the data,” Markowitz said. “It really paints a picture that bias is not just a one-off phenomenon among certain physicians or individuals. Bias is systemic, subtle and consequential in medicine.”

Markowitz looked at 1.8 million medical records for the language doctors used with those they are caring for, Medical Express reports. “The evidence suggests bias manifests in how physicians talk about their patients,” he said. “And it’s probably not too far of a leap to also suggest it might affect their care as well.”

The study found that physicians refer to female patients in impersonal and emotional terms compared to male patients. It also found that doctors don’t pay attention to the negative experiences of Black patients versus white patients. The study also suggests that physicians struggled with resolving issues for Black female patients compared to other groups. “Based on the evidence, caregivers of Black women tend to communicate, at least linguistically, with the greatest indicators of bias,” Markowitz said, highlighting that some data was collected from one hospital.

“These data are unlikely to be useful as a bias detector, but instead they could be used as a red flag to indicate how some physicians are communicating with patients and make them aware of possible harmful behavior,” Markowitz said, Medical Xpress. “It would be fantastic to also get ratings from patients, too, to figure out whether they can pick up on some of these subtle biases reflected in language.”