Patient Safety | 03.01.24
California Lawsuit Spotlights Broad Legal Attack on Anti-Bias Training in Health Care
by NAMSS Staff
California Healthline (02/23/24) Cohen, Ronnie
Los Angeles-based anesthesiologist Marilyn Singleton was so outraged about a California requirement that every continuing medical education course include training in implicit bias that she has sued the Medical Board of California, asserting a constitutional right not to teach something she does not believe. Singleton, who is Black and has practiced for five decades, sees calling physicians out for implicit bias as divisive and contends the state cannot legally require her to teach the idea in her continuing education classes. The litigation is part of a nationwide campaign by right-leaning advocacy and legal groups against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the health care sector. It should be noted that her lawsuit does not dispute the state's authority to require implicit-bias training. It questions only whether the state can make it a requirement that all teachers discuss implicit bias in their continuing medical education courses.
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