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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 at the Institute for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Colorado

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

Keith Maddox,
PhD 

Associate Professor of Psychology at Tufts University

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

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