PC1066: Implementation, Feasibility, and Impact of a Novel Anti-racism and Anti-bias Curriculum for Fellowship Interviews

Background: Lack of diversity in the physician workforce has garnered new attention. Some efforts to improve diversity in medicine have focused on the preparation and education of graduate medical education (GME) faculty interviewers to reduce bias and racism but little is known on the impact of such interventions. We sough to determine the feasibility and impact of a novel, self-directed, anti-racism curriculum for pediatric subspecialty faculty interviewers.

Methods: We piloted an interviewer curriculum in a large multi-institutional neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship program. Pre- and post-surveys with 5-point Likert scale questions were administered to (1) understand anti-racism beliefs among interviewers regarding varying applicant characteristics and (2) assess interviewers anti-racism knowledge. Signed-Rank test (SRT) was used to determine the impact of the curriculum on beliefs and knowledge.

Results: Of the 37 interviewers, 35 (94.6%) completed the curriculum by the completion of the interview season. For five of eight interview days, all interviewers had completed the curriculum. Prior to the curriculum, interviewers had no strong preference on whether applicant Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) status, standardized exam scores, medical school attended, and college attended were helpful in determining an applicant’s strength (median=3). Following the curriculum, there was a significant decrease in the proportion of interviewers’ who agreed or strongly that AOA status (32% v. 3% agree or strongly agree, SRT p-value=0.002) and standardized exam scores (38% v. 7% agree or strongly agree, SRT p-value= < 0.0001) (Figure 1) helped determine an applicant’s strength in line with anti-racism education.

Following the curriculum, more interviewers (1) felt comfortable talking about institutional DEI activities, (68% v. 100% agree or strongly agree, SRT p-value=0.0001), (2) reported having strategies to neutralize their own implicit biases (73% v. 97% agree or strongly agree, SRT p-value=0.03) and (3) reported having strategies to address microaggressions (57% v. 100% agree or strongly agree, SRT p-value < 0.0001). Sixty-two percent reported that completing the Implicit Association Test would impact their interviewing.

Conclusion: A short, self-directed, anti-racism interviewer curriculum was feasible to implement and improved self-reported faculty anti-racism knowledge and beliefs. Further study is needed to assess the impact of educational curricula on diversity within the medical trainee pipeline.