Diversifying the Face of Emergency Medicine

Overview:

On this episode, Dr. Agboola and Dr. Diaz discuss the complex topic of diversity and the role that it plays in medicine, highlighting its role in EM. They discuss what programs can do to foster diversity and recruit diverse individuals in the future. They delve into a discussion of how imagery can become expectations and define terms such as minority tax, microaggression, and stereotype threat. Interspersed throughout this discussion, they open up about their personal experiences as providers of color at their respective training sites.

Key Points

• Diversity is not just about having colored faces in a space; it is about creating an environment that cultivates and supports diversity.
• Everyone has implicit biases. It is important to be aware of these implicit biases and utilize that information to invoke intrapersonal change.
• Just like allies are useful in overcoming the barriers faced by the LGBTQ community, allies are also important in overcoming the barriers faced by underrepresented minorities in medicine.

Key Resources

• https://issuu.com/sfmedsociety/docs/sf_marin_medicine_sept_2018-issuu (page 25 features Dr. Diaz)
• https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html (Harvard implicit bias test)
• “Understanding why some ethnic minority patients evaluate medical care more negatively than white patients: a cross sectional analysis of a routine patient survey in English general practices” https://www.bmj.com/content/339/bmj.b3450
• “Does Diversity Matter for health?” https://www.nber.org/papers/w24787.pdf
• EMRA Diversity and Inclusion Committee