Doctors' Racial Biases May Not Influence Patient Care, Survey Suggests

WEDNESDAY, March 18, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- A new survey finds that hospital doctors don't treat patients differently because of race or income level, even though it detected unconscious bias in some clinicians. Researchers asked more than 200 doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore how they would respond to various hypothetical situations involving white and black patients, and rich and poor patients.

"We know from hundreds of studies that minority patients, particularly African-American patients, are less likely to get medical services than white patients," said Dr. John Ayanian, director of the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation at the University of Michigan.