Editor's Pick: ACP's "Diagnostic Equity: Minimizing Bias in Practice" series ft. Denise Connor, MD, FACH

Q&A Video ft. Denise Connor, MD, FACH

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Note: The responses below are highlights from the Q&A video.

What are the modules?

As folks engaging with CODEX know well, diagnosis is at the heart of medical practice. For many of us, it was the challenge of working with patients to identify a diagnosis that could explain their symptoms and help to move towards effective treatment options that first drew us to our field. Unfortunately, despite many advances in healthcare, diagnostic error—both inaccurate and inappropriately delayed diagnoses—remain common. Increasingly, our field is also recognizing that some patients and communities face a disproportionate burden of these kinds of errors. 

I had the privilege of helping to design ACP’s Diagnostic Equity: Minimizing Bias in Practice series—these interactive online modules are intended to describe factors that contribute to the problem of diagnostic disparities and to spotlight practical steps clinicians can take to support accurate, timely diagnoses.

 

What do the modules teach us?

This 3-part series of online activities walks through key points with busy clinicians in mind:

• First: Both individual-level factors like unconscious bias and the use of stigmatizing language—which, unfortunately is embedded in day-to-day practice and documentation, and has been passed down—often unintentionally—through generations of medical training—as well as systems-level factors like ease of access to interpreters and the need for clinicians to multi-task throughout their day increase the risk for diagnostic error.
• Second: On an individual clinician level, there are many strategies to support effective diagnostic communication and mitigate the risk for error—frameworks like relationship-centered and trauma informed care can be particularly helpful to draw upon. We discuss the importance of keeping in mind that prior negative experiences and discrimination in the healthcare system can adversely impact diagnostic communication, and we talk through how being intentional in our communication is particularly critical in this context.
• Third: On a systems-level, clinicians can consider opportunities for advocacy in their healthcare systems to create structures that support diagnostic equity. With this in mind, the series includes tips on change management approaches.
   

The series features patient scenarios that may feel familiar, and, as is so often the case when we design interventions to support individuals facing the highest risks, the strategies discussed can serve to reduce the risk of diagnostic error for all patients. We hope you’ll consider engaging with this series to refine your understanding of diagnostic disparities and to consider strategies you might engage with to support diagnostic equity. Together, we can make inroads to advance diagnostic accuracy and improve care for all of our patients. ACP’s series is free for anyone to engage with—ACP members can also opt to obtain CME credit, and non-members can opt to purchase CME credit if desired. Thanks for listening!
 

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