COLLABORTIONS AND ACTIVE GRANTS
Project -Racial Biases in Pain Treatment: Tests of pain-care recommendations, treatment biases, and race perception mechanisms
Project Coordinator: Kathleen Hopps
Pain is the most frequently cited reason Americans seek medical aid, is the most common cause of long-term disability, and costs an estimated $635 billion per year. However, pain care is not equitably distributed. Black patients receive less intensive and guideline-directed pain care than White patients. The objective of this grant is to identify treatment biases, examine the race- perception processes theorized to underlie treatment biases, and empirically test a novel intervention to address problematic race-perception processes. Currently, we are investigating the pattern of clinician biases in pain care for White, Black, and multiracial Black/White hypothetical patients. Our next aim is to examine the extent to which person perception processes are associated with clinician treatment recommendations for hypothetical Black, White, and Black/White patients. Finally, we will test a psychological intervention designed to attenuate race perception biases.
In collaboration with:
Primary Mentors
Stacie Daugherty,
MD, MSPH
Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at University of Colorado School of Medicine, health services researcher and cardiologist at University of Colorado Hospital
Kennon Heard,
MD, PhD
Professor of Emergency Medicine and Section Chief of Medical Toxicology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine
Amy Wachholtz,
PhD, MDIV, MS
Associate Professor and Program Director of the Clinical Health Psychology Program at the University of Colorado Denver
Elshimaa Basha,
MPH, CHSE
of the Center for Advancing Professional Excellence (CAPE)
Joshua Correll,
PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder
Content Mentors
Kristin Pauker,
Phd
Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Hawai’i
Max Weisbuch,
Phd
Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Denver