Unmet Need:
The quality of health care depends on the competence and motivation of the health workers. However, limits arise due to the inability to properly assess the proximal training outcomes for health care providers and evaluate the effectiveness of implicit bias training. The attitude and biases that maternal care workers hold can significantly impact a patient's care. According to the NATA (National Athletic Trainers Association), implicit bias in health care may directly lead to health care disparities. A standard tool used to examine possible biases is the Implicit Association Test (IAT) that measures attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report. However, like most bias tools, IAT is broad and primarily touches on one area at a time, like race, gender, and sexuality, making it an excellent resource for individual use. However, unlike IAT, Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a bias tool that can be used in a large-scale setting, making it an ideal option for health care facilities to use. Therefore, there is a strong need for a psychometrically validated instrument to address, measure and assess bias in maternal healthcare at a large scale.
Technology Overview:
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed a psychometrically validated 23-item instrument to assess maternal care providers' attitudes relevant to bias and the impact on patient care. This instrument measure proximal training outcomes for health care providers. With no valid and reliable instrument available to measure proximal training outcomes for health care providers, the development of this product can help heal the gaps that bias is placing on health care providers and patients. This invention can help health care providers measure workers' attitudes and practices and reduce the impact that their biases may have on patients.
Stage of Development:
The product has undergone complete validity and reliability testing and now awaits publication.
Patent:
N/A
Publication:
