10 Minute Teasers

One feature of Mini-Medical School is the 10 Minute Teasers - a series of brief lectures on a variety of topics designed to educate and spark conversation. The following teasers were featured in Mini-Med 2011:

MRSA

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (M.R.S.A., or phonetically "mersa"): Have public concerns over this "Super Bug" been exaggerated or has this bacterium earned its name? Dr. Costi Sifri, Director, Hospital Epidemiology/Infection Prevention & Control and Medical Director, Transplant & Compromised Infectious Disease Program, and Dr. Kevin Hazen, Medical Director, Clinical Microbiology and Molecular Diagnostics (Infectious Disease) will share with you the facts about this commonly misunderstood health concern. In this interactive presentation participants will have the opportunity to examine petri dishes demonstrating the principle of antibiotic resistance and how drug resistance by this and other bacteria is determined. Common questions regarding appropriate prevention as well as treatment strategies will be reviewed in an effort to help separate fact from fiction.

Implicit Bias

Everyday, physicians seek to give the best care they can provide to all their patients. Yet, study after study reveals that African Americans and other minorities are dying younger and in disproportionately higher numbers than whites. One contributing factor to these racial and health inequities may be physicians' racial biases. Implicit, i.e., unconscious stereotyping and bias may affect physicians' clinical decision making. Dr. Norman Oliver, Chair of the UVa Department of Family Medicine and Director of the UVa Center on Health Disparities, will discuss the role of implicit racial bias in clinical decision making. Dr. Oliver and Dr. Brian Nosek, an Associate Professor of Psychology at UVa and internationally renowned expert on implicit bias, have just conducted a study on implicit racial bias among primary-care physicians. "Implicit biases are pervasive," notes Dr. Nosek, "and have been linked to important behaviors, including treatment decisions by healthcare providers." In discussing a study he published in the August 2009 Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Undeserved, Nosek said "we found that - in terms of implicit racial biases - medical doctors are much like the rest of us. We measured more than 2,500 MDs and their implicit preference for White people over Black people was similar in magnitude to JDs, PhDs, and people without advanced degrees."