ACEP ID:
Originally approved October 2021
The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is committed to supporting diversity, inclusion, and equity in all aspects of the practice of medicine. Implicit bias refers to attitudes and associations that an individual holds about others that exist outside their conscious awareness yet influence their behavior. ACEP recognizes that implicit bias affects the quality of medical care patients receive and patient outcomes. Implicit bias also creates inequities in opportunities for all members of the healthcare team including within the realms of education, hiring, promotion, leadership, and compensation. These inequities remain pervasive within emergency medicine, and impact physicians at all levels of training from medical students to attending physicians. Improving these inequities is vital to the practice of medicine and necessitates a larger cultural change not only amongst physicians within the field of emergency medicine, but inclusive of all members of the healthcare team across all specialties. ACEP strongly recommends inclusion of implicit bias training for emergency physicians at all practice levels and encourages the inclusion of implicit bias training for all members of the healthcare team.
To this effect, ACEP recommends implementation of the following strategies: