New Illinois CME Mandate: Implicit Bias Awareness Training
Editor’s Note: The ICS had scheduled a webinar that covered this new implicit bias awareness requirement on August 2, 2022. Registration for the on-demand course is open here. As always, ICS members can take the webinar for free.
The IDFPR now requires all physicians and other health care providers to complete one hour of implicit bias awareness training as part of required continuing medical education. This class will be required for the 2023 physician license renewal and for each renewal thereafter. On August 2, 2022, the Illinois Chiropractic Society, an approved continuing medical education sponsor, will present an on-demand webinar class that meets the requirements of the rule. The course may be counted as one formal hour toward the 60 formal hours (plus 90 informal hours) required for each 3-year license cycle.
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The Joint Commission, the U.S.’ largest independent health care standards and accrediting body, describes “implicit bias” in health care as “the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions and decisions in an unconscious manner.[i] These biases, which encompass both favorable and unfavorable assessments, are activated involuntarily and without an individual’s awareness or intentional control.[ii]“ Some examples include that non-white patients receive fewer cardiovascular interventions and fewer renal transplants (as reported by the Joint Commission), or the traditional view of some health care practitioners that women with chronic pain are “emotional” or “hysterical.” Of course, a myriad of racial, ethnic, gender and other biases, even though often unintended, lead to poorer outcomes in the affected populations.
The goal is for practitioners to increase their awareness of implicit bias, how it can impact diagnosis and treatment, and how to ensure objectivity to ensure the best possible outcomes for all patients. The training course must include, at a minimum, the following topics:
1) Explanation of implicit bias; the difference between explicit and implicit biases;
2) Causes of implicit bias; how they form and operate;
3) Effects of implicit bias; the harms they cause; and
4) Recognizing, interrupting and mitigating implicit bias.
The implicit bias awareness class is one of 4 course areas that physicians will be required to complete for the 2023 license renewal; however, currently rules are in effect only for the first three: 1) sexual harassment prevention training; 2) mandated reporter training (including child abuse); and 3) implicit bias awareness. The fourth, Alzheimer’s and dementia training, will be required when the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation adopts a rule to implement the training, anticipated in advance of the current license expiration on July 31, 2023 (ICS will schedule a webinar once the details are released).
You can register for the ICS implicit bias training course here.
You can find all state mandated CME courses currently available through the ICS here.
[i] Staats C. State of the science: Implicit bias review 2014. Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.
[ii] 14. Rudman LA. Social justice in our minds, homes, and society: The nature, causes and consequences of implicit bias. Social Justice Research, 17(2):129-142.
