Michael Sun on Racial Biases Hiding in EHRs

The February 2022 issue of Health Affairs focuses entirely on racism and health. 

It includes papers that trace the long history of racism to present day policies and practices that are the reasons for large and sustained health disparities.

Racism and bias come in many forms and given the social stigma associated with them, they can be difficult to study. When a study comes along that provides new empirical data on bias, it makes a major contribution to our understanding of this important topic.

One such study in the February issue from Michael Sun, a medical student from the University of Chicago, and colleagues is the focus of today's A Health Podyssey.

Sun and coauthors studied bias in how patients are characterized by clinicians through the history and physical notes entered into a patient's electronic health record, or EHR. When a patient is admitted as an inpatient or an outpatient, the notes document the patient's reason for seeking medical care and summarize the patient's medical, family, and social history. 

The notes can also describe the plan to address the patient's medical problems. But what if the way the patient is characterized in these notes is distorted by clinician bias? 

Sun and colleagues examined racial bias in EHRs and found that Black patients had over 2.5 times the odds of having negative descriptors in their medical records when compared to white patients.

If you enjoy this interview, order the February 2022 Health Affairs Racism and Health theme issue.

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