Educational intervention against biological racism.

Abstract

Biological race, the fallacy that racial health disparities reflect differences in human biology, exerts undue influence on medicine. Interventions that teach against this myth are largely absent from required medical curricula. Here, we describe and present student and facilitator evaluations of an educational intervention, organised around Dorothy Roberts' book Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the Twenty-First Century that included a discussion of preselected chapters from Fatal Invention, case studies illustrating strategies to prevent the misuse of race in medicine and a question-and-answer session with Dorothy Roberts. Online feedback surveys were distributed to students and facilitators to capture their general perceptions of the session, how well it satisfied its objectives and the pre-session training materials provided to facilitators. Quantitative measures were analysed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative responses were evaluated using thematic analysis. Student and facilitator surveys garnered response rates of 59.8% (61/102) and 75% (30/40), respectively, and most expressed satisfaction with the session. Students felt more prepared to address the misuse of race in clinical contexts than in pre-clinical contexts (90.16% vs. 77.05%) and among peers than among superiors (95.08% vs. 72.13%) (p < 0.05). Some students (31.15%) felt that their small group facilitators were unprepared to address microaggressions. Our survey responses suggest that this intervention was effective in teaching against biological racism and equipped students with tools to address the misuse of race, particularly in clinical contexts. Future iterations should highlight strategies to confront biological racism in pre-clinical contexts and among superiors.