Minnesota

Unconscious bias, also called implicit bias, affects health care providers every day, especially when they are stressed or tired. Swift and automatic, it can reduce quality of care and even lead to medical errors. Michelle van Ryn, Ph.D., HSR – Health Care Policy and Research, is Principal Investigator of Mayo’s Research Group on Equity and Inclusion in Health Care. “All of us, despite the best of all possible intentions, are affected by unconscious processes. It affects what we see, how we react, how we feel, how we behave. If we’re not aware of it and taking measures to counter it, it affects quality of care.” Watch Dr. van Ryn describe her research in this video: https://youtu.be/igf3telOA5E

Reducing liver disease in immigrant African communities With funding from the Mayo Clinic Office of Health Disparities Research (OHDR), a team led by Lewis Roberts, M.B., Ch.B., Ph.D., is working to help reduce high rates of liver disease in immigrant African communities. “The diseases that we study — hepatitis and liver cancer — have a huge impact on communities, because they cause illness in individuals who are in the prime of their lives, in their most productive years,” says Dr. Roberts. Watch Dr. Roberts describe his research in this video: https://youtu.be/EcOa1uRz4U4  

Over 90 researchers attended the Mayo Clinic Office of Health Disparities Research (OHDR) annual retreat on October 6–7 in Rochester, Minnesota.