Leveraging Provocative Design Methods to Address Implicit Bias in Clinical Interactions through Technology

Area of Science:

• Healthcare delivery
• Human-computer interaction
• Medical ethics

Background:

• Implicit bias negatively affects patient-clinician interactions, patient outcomes, and healthcare trust.
• Current bias mitigation strategies often depend on expensive human evaluations.
• There is a need for innovative, technology-driven approaches to address implicit bias in clinical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore clinician-generated ideas for technology-based interventions to mitigate implicit bias.
• To understand how artificial intelligence (AI) could be integrated with clinician input to address bias.
• To identify design considerations for developing effective bias feedback tools.

Main Methods:

• Conducted interviews with 16 primary care clinicians.
• Utilized provocative design methods to stimulate innovative thinking.
• Analyzed interview themes related to technology and bias mitigation.

Main Results:

• Key themes included patient communication monitoring, enhancing clinician self-awareness, systemic changes, workflow optimization, clinician education, and patient feedback.
• Clinicians envisioned diverse technological solutions for bias feedback.
• Provocative design methods effectively fostered creative ideation among clinicians.

Conclusions:

• Clinician input is valuable for designing effective technology-based implicit bias interventions.
• Innovative solutions for addressing implicit bias can be generated by engaging clinicians in design processes.
• Technology, particularly AI, holds promise for developing scalable and accessible tools to combat implicit bias in healthcare.