IMPLICIT BIAS
people’s reported beliefs either because
they are unwilling or unable to report
An assessment mechanism called the
them.
Implicit Association Test (IAT) uses rapid
“Implicit biases emerge from the very
image association to gauge the implicit
ordinary operations of minds that are
biases of test-takers. During the past 15
necessary and important for learning
years, the IAT (www.implicit.harvard.edu)
about how the world works,” said Nosek,
has assessed more than 10 million
an associate professor of psychology
participants.
and director of Project Implicit at the
UC Davis Health System administrators University of Virginia.
have found the findings compelling.
“The same cognitive operations that
“The research makes it clear that we can contribute to you learning to call your
be influenced by unconscious biases even
doctor for a backache and your mechanic
though we feel strongly committed to be
for car trouble are involved when you
objective. If we acknowledge the reality of
learn to associate characteristics between
unconscious bias, we can look more closely
different groups and qualities of those
at our own judgments and challenge
groups,” Nosek said. “Implicit biases are
ourselves more carefully as we review
learned from our environment, whether
applications for positions here,” said Ed
we believe the information we are exposed
Callahan, associate dean for academic
to or not. If I have an implicit bias that
personnel and professor of family and
is different from my values, that could
community medicine.
influence my behavior in ways that differ
“I first learned about unconscious bias
from my intentions.”
seven or eight years ago in reviewing
manuscripts for journals. I went online
then to test my own unconscious bias, and
found evidence for it,” said Callahan. “We
now ask all members of search committees
to do the AAMC training, which I hope
will improve the fairness of our searching.”
The School of Medicine has initiated
changes in search committee composition,
increasing the proportion of women
and people from groups that are
underrepresented in medicine.
At the University of Wisconsin–
“In concert with that, we are phoning
Madison,
faculty physician Molly Carnes
academic minority leaders throughout the
has
conducted
several studies on the
country to let them know about position
influence of unconscious bias in academic
openings. Our search firm quietly talks
medicine.
with people to encourage them to apply,
“People are members of various social
and offers confidentiality as long into the
categories
based on some shared trait – for
search process as possible to encourage
example,
gender,
race, religion, language
their consideration of the position,”
or
geography,
“
said
Carnes, who is a
Callahan said.
professor in the departments of Medicine,
The IAT is a component of Project
Psychiatry, and Industrial and Systems
Implicit, a research collaborative that is
Engineering.
partially funded by a grant from National
“From this emerge stereotypes – some
Institute of Mental Health and composed
parts of which may be true for most
of teams of scientists from the universities
members of that group. These stereotypes
of Virginia and Washington, and Harvard
University. Brian Nosek, one of three
about groups of people have real and
Project Implicit principal investigators,
consequential effects on the way in which
explains that implicit biases can differ from we evaluate individuals who are members
FROM PAGE 1
facultyNEWSLETTER | October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
of one of these stereotyped groups,”
added Carnes, who is co-director of
the Women in Science and Engineering
Leadership Institute (http://wiseli.engr.
wisc.edu/).
Sue Barton, who has been retained
to chair or co-chair numerous search
committees for the UC Davis schools
of Medicine and Nursing, believes that
biases can be “unlearned” or brought to
consciousness through new experiences.
“First, we have to be willing to
acknowledge that we have biases,” she
said. Unconscious biases can manifest
themselves in surprising ways.
“Imagine, for example, that you’re a
search committee member examining
the submission of an applicant named
‘Lesley,’ who you assume is a woman –
but then learn the applicant is male.
You might not have imagined that a man
would have had the experiences that
are shown on the applicant’s CV,” said
Barton, a UC Davis professor, emerita,
of family and community medicine.
Barton doesn’t expect people
to immediately overcome their
unintentional biases through one
online workshop.
“Surmounting unconscious bias
will require a cultural shift. But it is
attainable through education over time,”
she said.
Nosek said that although more
research must be done, initial evidence
indicates that implicit biases are more
influential when decision makers
are stressed, when information is
incomplete or ambiguous, when the
topic is complex, and when a decision
must be made quickly.
“These are situations that characterize
medicine as a field. So for important
decisions, slow down,” Nosek advised.
And take a self-adversarial approach. If
you find yourself leaning in a particular
direction, take some time to review
and advocate for the opposite decision.
Sometimes such a process can reveal
assumptions that one did not realize
that they were making.”
UC Davis Health System
Faculty Development Office
2921 Stockton Blvd.,Suite 1400
Sacramento, CA 95817
Published by the Faculty Development Office
OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2010
Workshops and other activities
You are invited! We encourage you to enroll
in one of the various workshops, programs
and events sponsored by the Faculty
Development Office. For more event details
and to register, visit www.ucdmc.ucdavis.
edu/facultydev/ and click Enroll Online.
(Event co-sponsors are indicated within
parentheses.) Volunteer Clinical Faculty
members are also welcome and encouraged
to attend faculty development events.
(CALENDAR FROM PAGE 1)
facultyNEWSLETTER
Published by the Faculty Development
Office, which administers and coordinates
programs that respond to the professional and
career development needs of UC Davis Health
System faculty members.
2921 Stockton Blvd., Suite 1400
Sacramento, CA 95817
(916) 703-9230
www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev/
October
December
5 Latin American Welcome Dinner
(OD)
1 Application Deadline: Dean’s Excellence Awards
7 Breakfast With the Dean
7 Workshop: Grantsmanship For
Success, Part 1 (OR/CTSC)
10 Scientific Writing for Publication (JCLP)
8 Making Collaboration Work (JCLP)
Event co-sponsor
Edward Callahan, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Academic Personnel
CTSC: Clinical and Translational Science Center
Gregg Servis, M.Div.
Director, Faculty Development
gregg.servis@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
OD: Office of Diversity
Cheryl Busman
Program Representative, Faculty Development
cheryl.busman@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
WIMS: Women in Medicine and Science
10 Reception to Welcome New Women
Faculty (WIMS)
14 Workshop: Grantsmanship For
Success, Part 2 (OR/CTSC)
JCLP: Junior Career Leadership Program
20 African American Welcome Dinner
(OD)
OR: School of Medicine Office of Research
November
3 New Faculty Orientation
EditPros LLC
Writing and Editing
www.editpros.com
9 Workshop: Introduction to
MyInfoVault
12 Leadership Styles (JCLP)
18 Workshop: How to Give Effective
Feedback
CALENDAR CONTINUES ON PAGE 6
5
facultyNEWSLETTER | October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
6
EXPLICIT RESPONSE TO IMPLICIT BIAS
Health system initiates search committee procedural changes
Many enlightened people with
The Science of Unconscious Bias and
supervisory and hiring authority
What To Do About it in the Search and
profess and would like to believe
Recruitment Process” (accessible at
they are free of prejudice and treat
www.aamc.org/opi/leadership/training.
people equitably. But a growing body
htm).
of research indicates that all people
AAMC cites “overwhelming
harbor hidden biases of which they
scientific evidence that unconscious
are often unaware. This “unconscious
bias may influence the evaluation and
bias” can influence hiring and
selection of candidates in organizations,
promotion functions — even in
including medical schools and teaching
medical and nursing schools staffed
hospitals.” People unwittingly harbor
and administered by people who value biases that result from exposure
egalitarian ideals.
to societal stereotypes about race,
Cognitive and social psychology
sex, ethnicity, age, weight, sexual
research findings compelled the
orientation, religious preference and
Association of American Medical
other aspects of culture. Nearly 1,000
Colleges (AAMC) to develop
people from more than 100 academic
instructional materials to acquaint
medical centers and universities have
school administrators and recruitment
viewed the AAMC training seminar
committees with the “unconscious bias” since its debut last March.
concept. Those materials include an
online tutorial, “What You Don’t Know:
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
officeVISIT
STUDENTS LEARN FROM MILITARY SURGERY
VETERAN JAMES WIEDEMAN
The UC Davis medical students and
surgical and family practice residents
who rotate through training with surgeon
James Wiedeman at the Sacramento VA
Medical Center benefit from his years
of experience. As they study abdominal
examination and surgical techniques
under his tutelage, they may be unaware,
however, of the influential role he played
in updating the armed forces’ approach to
field combat trauma treatment.
Wiedeman, who is chief of general
surgery and surgical residency director
at the Sacramento VA Medical Center in
Mather, retired at the rank of colonel in
2002 following a 22-year career with the
U.S. Air Force. His numerous assignments
included roles as chief of surgical
services in support of Operation Uphold
Democracy humanitarian relief in Haiti
during 1999; in 1995 he had been chief
of the medical staff for a 60-bed United
Nations field surgical hospital during
Operation Provide Promise in Croatia; and
in 1990 and ’91 he was a team chief at the
Royal Air Force’s Lakenheath base, treating
casualties during Operation Desert Shield
and Operation Desert Storm.
His subsequent studies and
recommendations helped influence
the manner in which military surgeons
prepare for deployment today. Wiedeman
facilitated his work through the Society
of Air Force Clinical Surgeons, an
organization that helps military residents
and young surgeons gather important
information in the field.
“While deployed during the first Gulf
War in 1991, I determined that Advanced
Trauma Life Support and other standard
training that military surgeons received
was not adequate to prepare them for
a wartime role,” Wiedeman said. “The
United States had not been involved in
a major conflict since the Vietnam War,
and since then, magnitude of weaponry
hardhatUPDATE
A WELCOME TO NEW
FACULTY COLLEAGUES
CANCER CENTER EXPANSION
Lisa Diane Mills
Construction has begun on a long-sought
expansion of the UC Davis Cancer Center,
where need for additional clinical care
space has grown rapidly during the past
several years.
To meet that need, the UC Davis
Cancer Center Capital and Endowment
Initiative in 2006 launched a campaign to
raise $38 million for a major expansion
of the existing cancer center. Thanks to
several large gifts and pledges of support,
including a $5 million capital grant from
the Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation,
significant progress toward that goal has
been made.
Although fund-raising efforts continue,
construction on the first phase of the
project is under way. By spring 2012, a
46,000-square-foot addition is expected
to be completed along the north side of
the existing 63,000-square-foot building.
The two structures will be connected by a
bridge above a common courtyard. About
9,000 square feet of the existing Cancer
Center will be remodeled as part of the
project.
The expansion will include an enlarged
adult hematology and oncology clinic, and
will house an adult infusion pharmacy and
the pediatric cancer program, which is now
located in other buildings on the health
system campus.
Cancer Center Director Ralph deVere
White said co-location of the adult and
pediatric programs is expected to benefit
David J. Moller
Each edition of the Faculty Newsletter introduces several faculty colleagues who recently joined the UC Davis
Health System community. Watch for more new clinical and research staff members in the next issue.
care authority F. William Blaisdell, UC
Davis professor emeritus, who had been
invited to attend grand rounds at Travis.
Wiedeman began attending weekly
trauma conferences with Blaisdell and
other trauma physicians. Wiedeman and
UC Davis staff members conducted joint
continuing medical education courses
and mock oral board examinations at
Travis until Wiedeman’s retirement from
the Air Force.
When Wiedeman became a member
of the Sacramento VA Medical Center
staff in 2002, he also joined the UC Davis
volunteer clinical faculty as an associate
and the nature of injuries had changed
clinical professor of surgery.
dramatically.”
“I had enjoyed my teaching roles
Wiedeman presented his research
while at Travis with the surgery residency
findings at national meetings and
program, and I wanted to maintain these
developed curricula for several courses.
interests at the VA,” Wiedeman explained.
“We started teaching residents how
Each month he hosts three or four UC
to perform craniotomies, apply external
Davis medical students.
fixators, and perform damage control in
“I teach them some basic surgical
field facilities, and in general encouraged
techniques, expose them to a variety of
development of more broad skills for milisurgical problems, grade multiple history
tary trauma surgeons,” Wiedeman said.
and physical examination write-ups, and
After returning from eight years of
give them ongoing feedback about their
overseas duty in 1993, Wiedeman was
performance on ward and ICU rounds, in
assigned to the medical staff of David
the clinics, and during didactic sessions,”
Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force
Wiedeman said. “I also proctor residents
Base in Fairfield. There he met trauma
from both the surgery and family
medicine departments at UC Davis in
their first three years of residency.”
“I teach [medical
Wiedeman, who was raised in a small
students] some basic
town in southern Illinois, enjoys wildlife
viewing,
hiking, biking, astronomy,
surgical techniques, expose
reading and movies, and he’s a fan of
them to a variety of surgical the Sacramento Kings and the St. Louis
Cardinals.
problems, grade multiple
He is married to physician Jean
history and physical
Wiedeman, a UC Davis associate
professor who specializes in the treatment
examination write-ups,
of children with infectious diseases. The
and give them ongoing
couple has a 27-year-old son, Sean, who
has
a background in business and now is
feedback about their
pursuing advanced degrees in math and
performance ...”
education.
facultyNEWSLETTER |October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
facultyROUNDS
Lisa Mills researches bedside
ultrasonography in the
Emergency Department
surgery in complex spinal disorders. He
• For more than 30 years Peter C.
is a member of the UC Davis Medical
Mundy, Ph.D., has conducted
Center Diagnostic and Therapeutic
research focusing on defining the
Imaging Committee; the Congress of
behavioral and neurocognitive
Lisa Diane Mills, M.D., a boardNeurological Surgeons; and the American
deficits of social attention in autism.
certified associate professor of
Association of Neurological Surgeons.
Mundy, a professor of psychiatry and
emergency medicine, is conducting
behavioral sciences, was recognized
research on the use of bedside
Other new colleagues
ultrasonography in the diagnosis
with the 2009 Eden Institute
• Biomechanics and bone adaptation
and treatment of patients in the
Princeton Lecture Series Fellowship
specialist Blaine A. Christiansen,
Emergency Department. She also has
for career accomplishments in the
Ph.D., is an assistant professor in
an appointment at the VA Northern
field
of autism. He is the Lisa Capps
residence in the Department of
California Health Care System.
Professor
of Neurodevelopmental
Orthopaedic Surgery’s Lawrence
After completing a fellowship in
Disorders and Education in the
J. Ellison Musculoskeletal Research
bedside ultrasonography at Louisiana
Center. He is investigating the role of
UC Davis School of Education and
State University in New Orleans, she
peripheral sensory nerves on bone
Department of Psychiatry, and is
immediately applied her training
maintenance and adaptation to in vivo
director of education research in
by caring for flood victims in the
mechanical loading. He explains that
the UC Davis MIND Institute. His
devastating aftermath of Hurricane
establishing this role of peripheral
work is supported by two National
Katrina. Mills also serves on the board
nerves in bone homeostasis could
Institutes of Health grants: one to
of directors of the American Academy
lead to therapies aimed at maintaining
develop immersion virtual reality
of Emergency Medicine.
bone mass during aging, diabetes
methods to study social attention
or other conditions associated with
Neurological surgeon David
in autism, and another to study
peripheral neuropathy, thereby
Moller specializes in minimally
frontal cortical self-monitoring and
protecting patients from bone
invasive techniques
behavioral activation processes
fractures.
Spinal deformity surgery and minimally
associated with individual differences
invasive spine surgery are specialties
• Psychiatrist Rich Cross, M.D., an
in social development in autism.
of David J. Moller, M.D., an assistant
assistant professor in the Department
• Pediatric nephrologist Stephanie
professor of neurological surgery. He is
of Psychiatry and Behavioral
researching the outcomes of minimally
Nguyen, M.D., M.A.S., an assistant
Sciences, has expertise in forensic
invasive and deformity spine surgery,
psychiatry and traumatic stress. He
clinical professor in the Department
and innovative techniques in spine
is an attending psychiatrist for the
of Pediatrics, specializes in treatment
surgery.
Sacramento County Mental Health
of pediatric hypertension. Certified
After receiving his undergraduate
Treatment Center. There he is
by the American Board of Pediatrics,
degree in neurobiology from UC Davis
responsible for 25 seriously mentally
Nguyen seeks to identify the
and his M.D. degree at Loma Linda
ill inpatients, and he teaches and
treatment of hypertension in highUniversity Medical School, Moller
supervises clinical care delivered by
risk children. She is investigating the
completed a neurosurgery residency
residents and medical students. Boardpathogenesis of diet and obesity on
and spine fellowship at Northwestern
certified in psychiatry by the American
the development of kidney disease
Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He
Board of Psychiatry and Neurology,
and
hypertension, and studying
was co-author of a 2008 research
Cross also treats seriously mentally ill
outcomes
of hypertension in children
study analyzing ways to optimize the
outpatients at a Sacramento County
with
diabetes
mellitus.
potential of minimally invasive spine
public mental health clinic.
both pediatric and adult patients.
“Having adults and children interact
helps keep a sense of perspective, and
can provide inspiration and hope to older
patients,” he said.
Children also will have their own
comfortable space. The pediatric
hematology-oncology and infusion clinics
will have play areas, isolation rooms, DVD
players and other features to make the visits
of young patients as pleasant as possible.
The new arrangement also will ensure
more seamless access to physicians, nurses
and treatment options for all patients. It
also will promote collaboration among
cancer center staff, faculty and researchers,
especially in clinical trials and follow-up
of pediatric cancer survivors as they make
the transition to adulthood, deVere White
added.
Co-location of resources also will benefit
clinical researchers, basic scientists and
physicians by helping them keep pace with
the growth of needed trials and research
programs. The cancer center includes 179
scientists in more than 300 cancer research
projects.
“To be able to quicken the pace by which
we make discoveries in the lab and get
them to the patients, we need dedicated
physician-scientists and we need the space,”
deVere White said. “If we are to bring our
expertise to the population of Northern
California, it’s important that our whole
base be as strong as possible.”
advisorycommittee
Faculty Forward
Advisory Committee
The Advisory Committee is responsible
for assisting with the implementation of
the Faculty Forward survey, interpreting
the results and delivering a set of
recommendations to Health System
leadership.
Faculty Forward
Advisory Committee Members
Claire Pomeroy, M.D., M.B.A.,
Vice Chancellor for Human
Health Sciences and Dean
(ex-officio member)
Frederick J. Meyers, M.D., MACP,
Executive Associate Dean
Edward Callahan, Ph.D., Associate
Dean, Academic Personnel
Mark Servis, M.D., Associate Dean,
Curriculum and Competency
Development
Gregg Servis, M.Div., Director, Faculty
Development
Joseph Antognini, M.D., Anesthesiology
and Pain Medicine
Hilary Brodie, M.D, Ph.D.,
Otolaryngology
Peter Cala, Ph.D., Physiology and
Membrane Biology
Stephen Chilcott, J.D., Human
Resources
Michael Condrin, M.B.A., Dean’s Office
W. Suzanne Eidson-Ton, M.D., M.S.,
Family and Community Medicine
Jeffrey Gauvin, M.D., Surgery
Estella Geraghty, M.D., M.S., M.P.H.,
Internal Medicine
Donald W. Hilty, M.D., Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences
Lydia P. Howell, M.D., Pathology and
Laboratory Medicine
Karnjit Johl, M.D., Internal Medicine
Vincent L. Johnson, M.B.A., Hospital
Administration
Daniel J. Tancredi, Ph.D. Pediatrics
2
facultyNEWSLETTER | October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
3
facultyNEWSLETTER | October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
4
officeVISIT
STUDENTS LEARN FROM MILITARY SURGERY
VETERAN JAMES WIEDEMAN
The UC Davis medical students and
surgical and family practice residents
who rotate through training with surgeon
James Wiedeman at the Sacramento VA
Medical Center benefit from his years
of experience. As they study abdominal
examination and surgical techniques
under his tutelage, they may be unaware,
however, of the influential role he played
in updating the armed forces’ approach to
field combat trauma treatment.
Wiedeman, who is chief of general
surgery and surgical residency director
at the Sacramento VA Medical Center in
Mather, retired at the rank of colonel in
2002 following a 22-year career with the
U.S. Air Force. His numerous assignments
included roles as chief of surgical
services in support of Operation Uphold
Democracy humanitarian relief in Haiti
during 1999; in 1995 he had been chief
of the medical staff for a 60-bed United
Nations field surgical hospital during
Operation Provide Promise in Croatia; and
in 1990 and ’91 he was a team chief at the
Royal Air Force’s Lakenheath base, treating
casualties during Operation Desert Shield
and Operation Desert Storm.
His subsequent studies and
recommendations helped influence
the manner in which military surgeons
prepare for deployment today. Wiedeman
facilitated his work through the Society
of Air Force Clinical Surgeons, an
organization that helps military residents
and young surgeons gather important
information in the field.
“While deployed during the first Gulf
War in 1991, I determined that Advanced
Trauma Life Support and other standard
training that military surgeons received
was not adequate to prepare them for
a wartime role,” Wiedeman said. “The
United States had not been involved in
a major conflict since the Vietnam War,
and since then, magnitude of weaponry
hardhatUPDATE
A WELCOME TO NEW
FACULTY COLLEAGUES
CANCER CENTER EXPANSION
Lisa Diane Mills
Construction has begun on a long-sought
expansion of the UC Davis Cancer Center,
where need for additional clinical care
space has grown rapidly during the past
several years.
To meet that need, the UC Davis
Cancer Center Capital and Endowment
Initiative in 2006 launched a campaign to
raise $38 million for a major expansion
of the existing cancer center. Thanks to
several large gifts and pledges of support,
including a $5 million capital grant from
the Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation,
significant progress toward that goal has
been made.
Although fund-raising efforts continue,
construction on the first phase of the
project is under way. By spring 2012, a
46,000-square-foot addition is expected
to be completed along the north side of
the existing 63,000-square-foot building.
The two structures will be connected by a
bridge above a common courtyard. About
9,000 square feet of the existing Cancer
Center will be remodeled as part of the
project.
The expansion will include an enlarged
adult hematology and oncology clinic, and
will house an adult infusion pharmacy and
the pediatric cancer program, which is now
located in other buildings on the health
system campus.
Cancer Center Director Ralph deVere
White said co-location of the adult and
pediatric programs is expected to benefit
David J. Moller
Each edition of the Faculty Newsletter introduces several faculty colleagues who recently joined the UC Davis
Health System community. Watch for more new clinical and research staff members in the next issue.
care authority F. William Blaisdell, UC
Davis professor emeritus, who had been
invited to attend grand rounds at Travis.
Wiedeman began attending weekly
trauma conferences with Blaisdell and
other trauma physicians. Wiedeman and
UC Davis staff members conducted joint
continuing medical education courses
and mock oral board examinations at
Travis until Wiedeman’s retirement from
the Air Force.
When Wiedeman became a member
of the Sacramento VA Medical Center
staff in 2002, he also joined the UC Davis
volunteer clinical faculty as an associate
and the nature of injuries had changed
clinical professor of surgery.
dramatically.”
“I had enjoyed my teaching roles
Wiedeman presented his research
while at Travis with the surgery residency
findings at national meetings and
program, and I wanted to maintain these
developed curricula for several courses.
interests at the VA,” Wiedeman explained.
“We started teaching residents how
Each month he hosts three or four UC
to perform craniotomies, apply external
Davis medical students.
fixators, and perform damage control in
“I teach them some basic surgical
field facilities, and in general encouraged
techniques, expose them to a variety of
development of more broad skills for milisurgical problems, grade multiple history
tary trauma surgeons,” Wiedeman said.
and physical examination write-ups, and
After returning from eight years of
give them ongoing feedback about their
overseas duty in 1993, Wiedeman was
performance on ward and ICU rounds, in
assigned to the medical staff of David
the clinics, and during didactic sessions,”
Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force
Wiedeman said. “I also proctor residents
Base in Fairfield. There he met trauma
from both the surgery and family
medicine departments at UC Davis in
their first three years of residency.”
“I teach [medical
Wiedeman, who was raised in a small
students] some basic
town in southern Illinois, enjoys wildlife
viewing,
hiking, biking, astronomy,
surgical techniques, expose
reading and movies, and he’s a fan of
them to a variety of surgical the Sacramento Kings and the St. Louis
Cardinals.
problems, grade multiple
He is married to physician Jean
history and physical
Wiedeman, a UC Davis associate
professor who specializes in the treatment
examination write-ups,
of children with infectious diseases. The
and give them ongoing
couple has a 27-year-old son, Sean, who
has
a background in business and now is
feedback about their
pursuing advanced degrees in math and
performance ...”
education.
facultyNEWSLETTER |October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
facultyROUNDS
Lisa Mills researches bedside
ultrasonography in the
Emergency Department
surgery in complex spinal disorders. He
• For more than 30 years Peter C.
is a member of the UC Davis Medical
Mundy, Ph.D., has conducted
Center Diagnostic and Therapeutic
research focusing on defining the
Imaging Committee; the Congress of
behavioral and neurocognitive
Lisa Diane Mills, M.D., a boardNeurological Surgeons; and the American
deficits of social attention in autism.
certified associate professor of
Association of Neurological Surgeons.
Mundy, a professor of psychiatry and
emergency medicine, is conducting
behavioral sciences, was recognized
research on the use of bedside
Other new colleagues
ultrasonography in the diagnosis
with the 2009 Eden Institute
• Biomechanics and bone adaptation
and treatment of patients in the
Princeton Lecture Series Fellowship
specialist Blaine A. Christiansen,
Emergency Department. She also has
for career accomplishments in the
Ph.D., is an assistant professor in
an appointment at the VA Northern
field
of autism. He is the Lisa Capps
residence in the Department of
California Health Care System.
Professor
of Neurodevelopmental
Orthopaedic Surgery’s Lawrence
After completing a fellowship in
Disorders and Education in the
J. Ellison Musculoskeletal Research
bedside ultrasonography at Louisiana
Center. He is investigating the role of
UC Davis School of Education and
State University in New Orleans, she
peripheral sensory nerves on bone
Department of Psychiatry, and is
immediately applied her training
maintenance and adaptation to in vivo
director of education research in
by caring for flood victims in the
mechanical loading. He explains that
the UC Davis MIND Institute. His
devastating aftermath of Hurricane
establishing this role of peripheral
work is supported by two National
Katrina. Mills also serves on the board
nerves in bone homeostasis could
Institutes of Health grants: one to
of directors of the American Academy
lead to therapies aimed at maintaining
develop immersion virtual reality
of Emergency Medicine.
bone mass during aging, diabetes
methods to study social attention
or other conditions associated with
Neurological surgeon David
in autism, and another to study
peripheral neuropathy, thereby
Moller specializes in minimally
frontal cortical self-monitoring and
protecting patients from bone
invasive techniques
behavioral activation processes
fractures.
Spinal deformity surgery and minimally
associated with individual differences
invasive spine surgery are specialties
• Psychiatrist Rich Cross, M.D., an
in social development in autism.
of David J. Moller, M.D., an assistant
assistant professor in the Department
• Pediatric nephrologist Stephanie
professor of neurological surgery. He is
of Psychiatry and Behavioral
researching the outcomes of minimally
Nguyen, M.D., M.A.S., an assistant
Sciences, has expertise in forensic
invasive and deformity spine surgery,
psychiatry and traumatic stress. He
clinical professor in the Department
and innovative techniques in spine
is an attending psychiatrist for the
of Pediatrics, specializes in treatment
surgery.
Sacramento County Mental Health
of pediatric hypertension. Certified
After receiving his undergraduate
Treatment Center. There he is
by the American Board of Pediatrics,
degree in neurobiology from UC Davis
responsible for 25 seriously mentally
Nguyen seeks to identify the
and his M.D. degree at Loma Linda
ill inpatients, and he teaches and
treatment of hypertension in highUniversity Medical School, Moller
supervises clinical care delivered by
risk children. She is investigating the
completed a neurosurgery residency
residents and medical students. Boardpathogenesis of diet and obesity on
and spine fellowship at Northwestern
certified in psychiatry by the American
the development of kidney disease
Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He
Board of Psychiatry and Neurology,
and
hypertension, and studying
was co-author of a 2008 research
Cross also treats seriously mentally ill
outcomes
of hypertension in children
study analyzing ways to optimize the
outpatients at a Sacramento County
with
diabetes
mellitus.
potential of minimally invasive spine
public mental health clinic.
both pediatric and adult patients.
“Having adults and children interact
helps keep a sense of perspective, and
can provide inspiration and hope to older
patients,” he said.
Children also will have their own
comfortable space. The pediatric
hematology-oncology and infusion clinics
will have play areas, isolation rooms, DVD
players and other features to make the visits
of young patients as pleasant as possible.
The new arrangement also will ensure
more seamless access to physicians, nurses
and treatment options for all patients. It
also will promote collaboration among
cancer center staff, faculty and researchers,
especially in clinical trials and follow-up
of pediatric cancer survivors as they make
the transition to adulthood, deVere White
added.
Co-location of resources also will benefit
clinical researchers, basic scientists and
physicians by helping them keep pace with
the growth of needed trials and research
programs. The cancer center includes 179
scientists in more than 300 cancer research
projects.
“To be able to quicken the pace by which
we make discoveries in the lab and get
them to the patients, we need dedicated
physician-scientists and we need the space,”
deVere White said. “If we are to bring our
expertise to the population of Northern
California, it’s important that our whole
base be as strong as possible.”
advisorycommittee
Faculty Forward
Advisory Committee
The Advisory Committee is responsible
for assisting with the implementation of
the Faculty Forward survey, interpreting
the results and delivering a set of
recommendations to Health System
leadership.
Faculty Forward
Advisory Committee Members
Claire Pomeroy, M.D., M.B.A.,
Vice Chancellor for Human
Health Sciences and Dean
(ex-officio member)
Frederick J. Meyers, M.D., MACP,
Executive Associate Dean
Edward Callahan, Ph.D., Associate
Dean, Academic Personnel
Mark Servis, M.D., Associate Dean,
Curriculum and Competency
Development
Gregg Servis, M.Div., Director, Faculty
Development
Joseph Antognini, M.D., Anesthesiology
and Pain Medicine
Hilary Brodie, M.D, Ph.D.,
Otolaryngology
Peter Cala, Ph.D., Physiology and
Membrane Biology
Stephen Chilcott, J.D., Human
Resources
Michael Condrin, M.B.A., Dean’s Office
W. Suzanne Eidson-Ton, M.D., M.S.,
Family and Community Medicine
Jeffrey Gauvin, M.D., Surgery
Estella Geraghty, M.D., M.S., M.P.H.,
Internal Medicine
Donald W. Hilty, M.D., Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences
Lydia P. Howell, M.D., Pathology and
Laboratory Medicine
Karnjit Johl, M.D., Internal Medicine
Vincent L. Johnson, M.B.A., Hospital
Administration
Daniel J. Tancredi, Ph.D. Pediatrics
2
facultyNEWSLETTER | October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
3
facultyNEWSLETTER | October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
4
officeVISIT
STUDENTS LEARN FROM MILITARY SURGERY
VETERAN JAMES WIEDEMAN
The UC Davis medical students and
surgical and family practice residents
who rotate through training with surgeon
James Wiedeman at the Sacramento VA
Medical Center benefit from his years
of experience. As they study abdominal
examination and surgical techniques
under his tutelage, they may be unaware,
however, of the influential role he played
in updating the armed forces’ approach to
field combat trauma treatment.
Wiedeman, who is chief of general
surgery and surgical residency director
at the Sacramento VA Medical Center in
Mather, retired at the rank of colonel in
2002 following a 22-year career with the
U.S. Air Force. His numerous assignments
included roles as chief of surgical
services in support of Operation Uphold
Democracy humanitarian relief in Haiti
during 1999; in 1995 he had been chief
of the medical staff for a 60-bed United
Nations field surgical hospital during
Operation Provide Promise in Croatia; and
in 1990 and ’91 he was a team chief at the
Royal Air Force’s Lakenheath base, treating
casualties during Operation Desert Shield
and Operation Desert Storm.
His subsequent studies and
recommendations helped influence
the manner in which military surgeons
prepare for deployment today. Wiedeman
facilitated his work through the Society
of Air Force Clinical Surgeons, an
organization that helps military residents
and young surgeons gather important
information in the field.
“While deployed during the first Gulf
War in 1991, I determined that Advanced
Trauma Life Support and other standard
training that military surgeons received
was not adequate to prepare them for
a wartime role,” Wiedeman said. “The
United States had not been involved in
a major conflict since the Vietnam War,
and since then, magnitude of weaponry
hardhatUPDATE
A WELCOME TO NEW
FACULTY COLLEAGUES
CANCER CENTER EXPANSION
Lisa Diane Mills
Construction has begun on a long-sought
expansion of the UC Davis Cancer Center,
where need for additional clinical care
space has grown rapidly during the past
several years.
To meet that need, the UC Davis
Cancer Center Capital and Endowment
Initiative in 2006 launched a campaign to
raise $38 million for a major expansion
of the existing cancer center. Thanks to
several large gifts and pledges of support,
including a $5 million capital grant from
the Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation,
significant progress toward that goal has
been made.
Although fund-raising efforts continue,
construction on the first phase of the
project is under way. By spring 2012, a
46,000-square-foot addition is expected
to be completed along the north side of
the existing 63,000-square-foot building.
The two structures will be connected by a
bridge above a common courtyard. About
9,000 square feet of the existing Cancer
Center will be remodeled as part of the
project.
The expansion will include an enlarged
adult hematology and oncology clinic, and
will house an adult infusion pharmacy and
the pediatric cancer program, which is now
located in other buildings on the health
system campus.
Cancer Center Director Ralph deVere
White said co-location of the adult and
pediatric programs is expected to benefit
David J. Moller
Each edition of the Faculty Newsletter introduces several faculty colleagues who recently joined the UC Davis
Health System community. Watch for more new clinical and research staff members in the next issue.
care authority F. William Blaisdell, UC
Davis professor emeritus, who had been
invited to attend grand rounds at Travis.
Wiedeman began attending weekly
trauma conferences with Blaisdell and
other trauma physicians. Wiedeman and
UC Davis staff members conducted joint
continuing medical education courses
and mock oral board examinations at
Travis until Wiedeman’s retirement from
the Air Force.
When Wiedeman became a member
of the Sacramento VA Medical Center
staff in 2002, he also joined the UC Davis
volunteer clinical faculty as an associate
and the nature of injuries had changed
clinical professor of surgery.
dramatically.”
“I had enjoyed my teaching roles
Wiedeman presented his research
while at Travis with the surgery residency
findings at national meetings and
program, and I wanted to maintain these
developed curricula for several courses.
interests at the VA,” Wiedeman explained.
“We started teaching residents how
Each month he hosts three or four UC
to perform craniotomies, apply external
Davis medical students.
fixators, and perform damage control in
“I teach them some basic surgical
field facilities, and in general encouraged
techniques, expose them to a variety of
development of more broad skills for milisurgical problems, grade multiple history
tary trauma surgeons,” Wiedeman said.
and physical examination write-ups, and
After returning from eight years of
give them ongoing feedback about their
overseas duty in 1993, Wiedeman was
performance on ward and ICU rounds, in
assigned to the medical staff of David
the clinics, and during didactic sessions,”
Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force
Wiedeman said. “I also proctor residents
Base in Fairfield. There he met trauma
from both the surgery and family
medicine departments at UC Davis in
their first three years of residency.”
“I teach [medical
Wiedeman, who was raised in a small
students] some basic
town in southern Illinois, enjoys wildlife
viewing,
hiking, biking, astronomy,
surgical techniques, expose
reading and movies, and he’s a fan of
them to a variety of surgical the Sacramento Kings and the St. Louis
Cardinals.
problems, grade multiple
He is married to physician Jean
history and physical
Wiedeman, a UC Davis associate
professor who specializes in the treatment
examination write-ups,
of children with infectious diseases. The
and give them ongoing
couple has a 27-year-old son, Sean, who
has
a background in business and now is
feedback about their
pursuing advanced degrees in math and
performance ...”
education.
facultyNEWSLETTER |October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
facultyROUNDS
Lisa Mills researches bedside
ultrasonography in the
Emergency Department
surgery in complex spinal disorders. He
• For more than 30 years Peter C.
is a member of the UC Davis Medical
Mundy, Ph.D., has conducted
Center Diagnostic and Therapeutic
research focusing on defining the
Imaging Committee; the Congress of
behavioral and neurocognitive
Lisa Diane Mills, M.D., a boardNeurological Surgeons; and the American
deficits of social attention in autism.
certified associate professor of
Association of Neurological Surgeons.
Mundy, a professor of psychiatry and
emergency medicine, is conducting
behavioral sciences, was recognized
research on the use of bedside
Other new colleagues
ultrasonography in the diagnosis
with the 2009 Eden Institute
• Biomechanics and bone adaptation
and treatment of patients in the
Princeton Lecture Series Fellowship
specialist Blaine A. Christiansen,
Emergency Department. She also has
for career accomplishments in the
Ph.D., is an assistant professor in
an appointment at the VA Northern
field
of autism. He is the Lisa Capps
residence in the Department of
California Health Care System.
Professor
of Neurodevelopmental
Orthopaedic Surgery’s Lawrence
After completing a fellowship in
Disorders and Education in the
J. Ellison Musculoskeletal Research
bedside ultrasonography at Louisiana
Center. He is investigating the role of
UC Davis School of Education and
State University in New Orleans, she
peripheral sensory nerves on bone
Department of Psychiatry, and is
immediately applied her training
maintenance and adaptation to in vivo
director of education research in
by caring for flood victims in the
mechanical loading. He explains that
the UC Davis MIND Institute. His
devastating aftermath of Hurricane
establishing this role of peripheral
work is supported by two National
Katrina. Mills also serves on the board
nerves in bone homeostasis could
Institutes of Health grants: one to
of directors of the American Academy
lead to therapies aimed at maintaining
develop immersion virtual reality
of Emergency Medicine.
bone mass during aging, diabetes
methods to study social attention
or other conditions associated with
Neurological surgeon David
in autism, and another to study
peripheral neuropathy, thereby
Moller specializes in minimally
frontal cortical self-monitoring and
protecting patients from bone
invasive techniques
behavioral activation processes
fractures.
Spinal deformity surgery and minimally
associated with individual differences
invasive spine surgery are specialties
• Psychiatrist Rich Cross, M.D., an
in social development in autism.
of David J. Moller, M.D., an assistant
assistant professor in the Department
• Pediatric nephrologist Stephanie
professor of neurological surgery. He is
of Psychiatry and Behavioral
researching the outcomes of minimally
Nguyen, M.D., M.A.S., an assistant
Sciences, has expertise in forensic
invasive and deformity spine surgery,
psychiatry and traumatic stress. He
clinical professor in the Department
and innovative techniques in spine
is an attending psychiatrist for the
of Pediatrics, specializes in treatment
surgery.
Sacramento County Mental Health
of pediatric hypertension. Certified
After receiving his undergraduate
Treatment Center. There he is
by the American Board of Pediatrics,
degree in neurobiology from UC Davis
responsible for 25 seriously mentally
Nguyen seeks to identify the
and his M.D. degree at Loma Linda
ill inpatients, and he teaches and
treatment of hypertension in highUniversity Medical School, Moller
supervises clinical care delivered by
risk children. She is investigating the
completed a neurosurgery residency
residents and medical students. Boardpathogenesis of diet and obesity on
and spine fellowship at Northwestern
certified in psychiatry by the American
the development of kidney disease
Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He
Board of Psychiatry and Neurology,
and
hypertension, and studying
was co-author of a 2008 research
Cross also treats seriously mentally ill
outcomes
of hypertension in children
study analyzing ways to optimize the
outpatients at a Sacramento County
with
diabetes
mellitus.
potential of minimally invasive spine
public mental health clinic.
both pediatric and adult patients.
“Having adults and children interact
helps keep a sense of perspective, and
can provide inspiration and hope to older
patients,” he said.
Children also will have their own
comfortable space. The pediatric
hematology-oncology and infusion clinics
will have play areas, isolation rooms, DVD
players and other features to make the visits
of young patients as pleasant as possible.
The new arrangement also will ensure
more seamless access to physicians, nurses
and treatment options for all patients. It
also will promote collaboration among
cancer center staff, faculty and researchers,
especially in clinical trials and follow-up
of pediatric cancer survivors as they make
the transition to adulthood, deVere White
added.
Co-location of resources also will benefit
clinical researchers, basic scientists and
physicians by helping them keep pace with
the growth of needed trials and research
programs. The cancer center includes 179
scientists in more than 300 cancer research
projects.
“To be able to quicken the pace by which
we make discoveries in the lab and get
them to the patients, we need dedicated
physician-scientists and we need the space,”
deVere White said. “If we are to bring our
expertise to the population of Northern
California, it’s important that our whole
base be as strong as possible.”
advisorycommittee
Faculty Forward
Advisory Committee
The Advisory Committee is responsible
for assisting with the implementation of
the Faculty Forward survey, interpreting
the results and delivering a set of
recommendations to Health System
leadership.
Faculty Forward
Advisory Committee Members
Claire Pomeroy, M.D., M.B.A.,
Vice Chancellor for Human
Health Sciences and Dean
(ex-officio member)
Frederick J. Meyers, M.D., MACP,
Executive Associate Dean
Edward Callahan, Ph.D., Associate
Dean, Academic Personnel
Mark Servis, M.D., Associate Dean,
Curriculum and Competency
Development
Gregg Servis, M.Div., Director, Faculty
Development
Joseph Antognini, M.D., Anesthesiology
and Pain Medicine
Hilary Brodie, M.D, Ph.D.,
Otolaryngology
Peter Cala, Ph.D., Physiology and
Membrane Biology
Stephen Chilcott, J.D., Human
Resources
Michael Condrin, M.B.A., Dean’s Office
W. Suzanne Eidson-Ton, M.D., M.S.,
Family and Community Medicine
Jeffrey Gauvin, M.D., Surgery
Estella Geraghty, M.D., M.S., M.P.H.,
Internal Medicine
Donald W. Hilty, M.D., Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences
Lydia P. Howell, M.D., Pathology and
Laboratory Medicine
Karnjit Johl, M.D., Internal Medicine
Vincent L. Johnson, M.B.A., Hospital
Administration
Daniel J. Tancredi, Ph.D. Pediatrics
2
facultyNEWSLETTER | October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
3
facultyNEWSLETTER | October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
4
IMPLICIT BIAS
people’s reported beliefs either because
they are unwilling or unable to report
An assessment mechanism called the
them.
Implicit Association Test (IAT) uses rapid
“Implicit biases emerge from the very
image association to gauge the implicit
ordinary operations of minds that are
biases of test-takers. During the past 15
necessary and important for learning
years, the IAT (www.implicit.harvard.edu)
about how the world works,” said Nosek,
has assessed more than 10 million
an associate professor of psychology
participants.
and director of Project Implicit at the
UC Davis Health System administrators University of Virginia.
have found the findings compelling.
“The same cognitive operations that
“The research makes it clear that we can contribute to you learning to call your
be influenced by unconscious biases even
doctor for a backache and your mechanic
though we feel strongly committed to be
for car trouble are involved when you
objective. If we acknowledge the reality of
learn to associate characteristics between
unconscious bias, we can look more closely
different groups and qualities of those
at our own judgments and challenge
groups,” Nosek said. “Implicit biases are
ourselves more carefully as we review
learned from our environment, whether
applications for positions here,” said Ed
we believe the information we are exposed
Callahan, associate dean for academic
to or not. If I have an implicit bias that
personnel and professor of family and
is different from my values, that could
community medicine.
influence my behavior in ways that differ
“I first learned about unconscious bias
from my intentions.”
seven or eight years ago in reviewing
manuscripts for journals. I went online
then to test my own unconscious bias, and
found evidence for it,” said Callahan. “We
now ask all members of search committees
to do the AAMC training, which I hope
will improve the fairness of our searching.”
The School of Medicine has initiated
changes in search committee composition,
increasing the proportion of women
and people from groups that are
underrepresented in medicine.
At the University of Wisconsin–
“In concert with that, we are phoning
Madison,
faculty physician Molly Carnes
academic minority leaders throughout the
has
conducted
several studies on the
country to let them know about position
influence of unconscious bias in academic
openings. Our search firm quietly talks
medicine.
with people to encourage them to apply,
“People are members of various social
and offers confidentiality as long into the
categories
based on some shared trait – for
search process as possible to encourage
example,
gender,
race, religion, language
their consideration of the position,”
or
geography,
“
said
Carnes, who is a
Callahan said.
professor in the departments of Medicine,
The IAT is a component of Project
Psychiatry, and Industrial and Systems
Implicit, a research collaborative that is
Engineering.
partially funded by a grant from National
“From this emerge stereotypes – some
Institute of Mental Health and composed
parts of which may be true for most
of teams of scientists from the universities
members of that group. These stereotypes
of Virginia and Washington, and Harvard
University. Brian Nosek, one of three
about groups of people have real and
Project Implicit principal investigators,
consequential effects on the way in which
explains that implicit biases can differ from we evaluate individuals who are members
FROM PAGE 1
facultyNEWSLETTER | October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
of one of these stereotyped groups,”
added Carnes, who is co-director of
the Women in Science and Engineering
Leadership Institute (http://wiseli.engr.
wisc.edu/).
Sue Barton, who has been retained
to chair or co-chair numerous search
committees for the UC Davis schools
of Medicine and Nursing, believes that
biases can be “unlearned” or brought to
consciousness through new experiences.
“First, we have to be willing to
acknowledge that we have biases,” she
said. Unconscious biases can manifest
themselves in surprising ways.
“Imagine, for example, that you’re a
search committee member examining
the submission of an applicant named
‘Lesley,’ who you assume is a woman –
but then learn the applicant is male.
You might not have imagined that a man
would have had the experiences that
are shown on the applicant’s CV,” said
Barton, a UC Davis professor, emerita,
of family and community medicine.
Barton doesn’t expect people
to immediately overcome their
unintentional biases through one
online workshop.
“Surmounting unconscious bias
will require a cultural shift. But it is
attainable through education over time,”
she said.
Nosek said that although more
research must be done, initial evidence
indicates that implicit biases are more
influential when decision makers
are stressed, when information is
incomplete or ambiguous, when the
topic is complex, and when a decision
must be made quickly.
“These are situations that characterize
medicine as a field. So for important
decisions, slow down,” Nosek advised.
And take a self-adversarial approach. If
you find yourself leaning in a particular
direction, take some time to review
and advocate for the opposite decision.
Sometimes such a process can reveal
assumptions that one did not realize
that they were making.”
UC Davis Health System
Faculty Development Office
2921 Stockton Blvd.,Suite 1400
Sacramento, CA 95817
Published by the Faculty Development Office
OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2010
Workshops and other activities
You are invited! We encourage you to enroll
in one of the various workshops, programs
and events sponsored by the Faculty
Development Office. For more event details
and to register, visit www.ucdmc.ucdavis.
edu/facultydev/ and click Enroll Online.
(Event co-sponsors are indicated within
parentheses.) Volunteer Clinical Faculty
members are also welcome and encouraged
to attend faculty development events.
(CALENDAR FROM PAGE 1)
facultyNEWSLETTER
Published by the Faculty Development
Office, which administers and coordinates
programs that respond to the professional and
career development needs of UC Davis Health
System faculty members.
2921 Stockton Blvd., Suite 1400
Sacramento, CA 95817
(916) 703-9230
www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev/
October
December
5 Latin American Welcome Dinner
(OD)
1 Application Deadline: Dean’s Excellence Awards
7 Breakfast With the Dean
7 Workshop: Grantsmanship For
Success, Part 1 (OR/CTSC)
10 Scientific Writing for Publication (JCLP)
8 Making Collaboration Work (JCLP)
Event co-sponsor
Edward Callahan, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Academic Personnel
CTSC: Clinical and Translational Science Center
Gregg Servis, M.Div.
Director, Faculty Development
gregg.servis@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
OD: Office of Diversity
Cheryl Busman
Program Representative, Faculty Development
cheryl.busman@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
WIMS: Women in Medicine and Science
10 Reception to Welcome New Women
Faculty (WIMS)
14 Workshop: Grantsmanship For
Success, Part 2 (OR/CTSC)
JCLP: Junior Career Leadership Program
20 African American Welcome Dinner
(OD)
OR: School of Medicine Office of Research
November
3 New Faculty Orientation
EditPros LLC
Writing and Editing
www.editpros.com
9 Workshop: Introduction to
MyInfoVault
12 Leadership Styles (JCLP)
18 Workshop: How to Give Effective
Feedback
CALENDAR CONTINUES ON PAGE 6
5
facultyNEWSLETTER | October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
6
EXPLICIT RESPONSE TO IMPLICIT BIAS
Health system initiates search committee procedural changes
Many enlightened people with
The Science of Unconscious Bias and
supervisory and hiring authority
What To Do About it in the Search and
profess and would like to believe
Recruitment Process” (accessible at
they are free of prejudice and treat
www.aamc.org/opi/leadership/training.
people equitably. But a growing body
htm).
of research indicates that all people
AAMC cites “overwhelming
harbor hidden biases of which they
scientific evidence that unconscious
are often unaware. This “unconscious
bias may influence the evaluation and
bias” can influence hiring and
selection of candidates in organizations,
promotion functions — even in
including medical schools and teaching
medical and nursing schools staffed
hospitals.” People unwittingly harbor
and administered by people who value biases that result from exposure
egalitarian ideals.
to societal stereotypes about race,
Cognitive and social psychology
sex, ethnicity, age, weight, sexual
research findings compelled the
orientation, religious preference and
Association of American Medical
other aspects of culture. Nearly 1,000
Colleges (AAMC) to develop
people from more than 100 academic
instructional materials to acquaint
medical centers and universities have
school administrators and recruitment
viewed the AAMC training seminar
committees with the “unconscious bias” since its debut last March.
concept. Those materials include an
online tutorial, “What You Don’t Know:
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
IMPLICIT BIAS
people’s reported beliefs either because
they are unwilling or unable to report
An assessment mechanism called the
them.
Implicit Association Test (IAT) uses rapid
“Implicit biases emerge from the very
image association to gauge the implicit
ordinary operations of minds that are
biases of test-takers. During the past 15
necessary and important for learning
years, the IAT (www.implicit.harvard.edu)
about how the world works,” said Nosek,
has assessed more than 10 million
an associate professor of psychology
participants.
and director of Project Implicit at the
UC Davis Health System administrators University of Virginia.
have found the findings compelling.
“The same cognitive operations that
“The research makes it clear that we can contribute to you learning to call your
be influenced by unconscious biases even
doctor for a backache and your mechanic
though we feel strongly committed to be
for car trouble are involved when you
objective. If we acknowledge the reality of
learn to associate characteristics between
unconscious bias, we can look more closely
different groups and qualities of those
at our own judgments and challenge
groups,” Nosek said. “Implicit biases are
ourselves more carefully as we review
learned from our environment, whether
applications for positions here,” said Ed
we believe the information we are exposed
Callahan, associate dean for academic
to or not. If I have an implicit bias that
personnel and professor of family and
is different from my values, that could
community medicine.
influence my behavior in ways that differ
“I first learned about unconscious bias
from my intentions.”
seven or eight years ago in reviewing
manuscripts for journals. I went online
then to test my own unconscious bias, and
found evidence for it,” said Callahan. “We
now ask all members of search committees
to do the AAMC training, which I hope
will improve the fairness of our searching.”
The School of Medicine has initiated
changes in search committee composition,
increasing the proportion of women
and people from groups that are
underrepresented in medicine.
At the University of Wisconsin–
“In concert with that, we are phoning
Madison,
faculty physician Molly Carnes
academic minority leaders throughout the
has
conducted
several studies on the
country to let them know about position
influence of unconscious bias in academic
openings. Our search firm quietly talks
medicine.
with people to encourage them to apply,
“People are members of various social
and offers confidentiality as long into the
categories
based on some shared trait – for
search process as possible to encourage
example,
gender,
race, religion, language
their consideration of the position,”
or
geography,
“
said
Carnes, who is a
Callahan said.
professor in the departments of Medicine,
The IAT is a component of Project
Psychiatry, and Industrial and Systems
Implicit, a research collaborative that is
Engineering.
partially funded by a grant from National
“From this emerge stereotypes – some
Institute of Mental Health and composed
parts of which may be true for most
of teams of scientists from the universities
members of that group. These stereotypes
of Virginia and Washington, and Harvard
University. Brian Nosek, one of three
about groups of people have real and
Project Implicit principal investigators,
consequential effects on the way in which
explains that implicit biases can differ from we evaluate individuals who are members
FROM PAGE 1
facultyNEWSLETTER | October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
of one of these stereotyped groups,”
added Carnes, who is co-director of
the Women in Science and Engineering
Leadership Institute (http://wiseli.engr.
wisc.edu/).
Sue Barton, who has been retained
to chair or co-chair numerous search
committees for the UC Davis schools
of Medicine and Nursing, believes that
biases can be “unlearned” or brought to
consciousness through new experiences.
“First, we have to be willing to
acknowledge that we have biases,” she
said. Unconscious biases can manifest
themselves in surprising ways.
“Imagine, for example, that you’re a
search committee member examining
the submission of an applicant named
‘Lesley,’ who you assume is a woman –
but then learn the applicant is male.
You might not have imagined that a man
would have had the experiences that
are shown on the applicant’s CV,” said
Barton, a UC Davis professor, emerita,
of family and community medicine.
Barton doesn’t expect people
to immediately overcome their
unintentional biases through one
online workshop.
“Surmounting unconscious bias
will require a cultural shift. But it is
attainable through education over time,”
she said.
Nosek said that although more
research must be done, initial evidence
indicates that implicit biases are more
influential when decision makers
are stressed, when information is
incomplete or ambiguous, when the
topic is complex, and when a decision
must be made quickly.
“These are situations that characterize
medicine as a field. So for important
decisions, slow down,” Nosek advised.
And take a self-adversarial approach. If
you find yourself leaning in a particular
direction, take some time to review
and advocate for the opposite decision.
Sometimes such a process can reveal
assumptions that one did not realize
that they were making.”
UC Davis Health System
Faculty Development Office
2921 Stockton Blvd.,Suite 1400
Sacramento, CA 95817
Published by the Faculty Development Office
OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2010
Workshops and other activities
You are invited! We encourage you to enroll
in one of the various workshops, programs
and events sponsored by the Faculty
Development Office. For more event details
and to register, visit www.ucdmc.ucdavis.
edu/facultydev/ and click Enroll Online.
(Event co-sponsors are indicated within
parentheses.) Volunteer Clinical Faculty
members are also welcome and encouraged
to attend faculty development events.
(CALENDAR FROM PAGE 1)
facultyNEWSLETTER
Published by the Faculty Development
Office, which administers and coordinates
programs that respond to the professional and
career development needs of UC Davis Health
System faculty members.
2921 Stockton Blvd., Suite 1400
Sacramento, CA 95817
(916) 703-9230
www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev/
October
December
5 Latin American Welcome Dinner
(OD)
1 Application Deadline: Dean’s Excellence Awards
7 Breakfast With the Dean
7 Workshop: Grantsmanship For
Success, Part 1 (OR/CTSC)
10 Scientific Writing for Publication (JCLP)
8 Making Collaboration Work (JCLP)
Event co-sponsor
Edward Callahan, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Academic Personnel
CTSC: Clinical and Translational Science Center
Gregg Servis, M.Div.
Director, Faculty Development
gregg.servis@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
OD: Office of Diversity
Cheryl Busman
Program Representative, Faculty Development
cheryl.busman@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
WIMS: Women in Medicine and Science
10 Reception to Welcome New Women
Faculty (WIMS)
14 Workshop: Grantsmanship For
Success, Part 2 (OR/CTSC)
JCLP: Junior Career Leadership Program
20 African American Welcome Dinner
(OD)
OR: School of Medicine Office of Research
November
3 New Faculty Orientation
EditPros LLC
Writing and Editing
www.editpros.com
9 Workshop: Introduction to
MyInfoVault
12 Leadership Styles (JCLP)
18 Workshop: How to Give Effective
Feedback
CALENDAR CONTINUES ON PAGE 6
5
facultyNEWSLETTER | October – November 2010 | www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/facultydev
6
EXPLICIT RESPONSE TO IMPLICIT BIAS
Health system initiates search committee procedural changes
Many enlightened people with
The Science of Unconscious Bias and
supervisory and hiring authority
What To Do About it in the Search and
profess and would like to believe
Recruitment Process” (accessible at
they are free of prejudice and treat
www.aamc.org/opi/leadership/training.
people equitably. But a growing body
htm).
of research indicates that all people
AAMC cites “overwhelming
harbor hidden biases of which they
scientific evidence that unconscious
are often unaware. This “unconscious
bias may influence the evaluation and
bias” can influence hiring and
selection of candidates in organizations,
promotion functions — even in
including medical schools and teaching
medical and nursing schools staffed
hospitals.” People unwittingly harbor
and administered by people who value biases that result from exposure
egalitarian ideals.
to societal stereotypes about race,
Cognitive and social psychology
sex, ethnicity, age, weight, sexual
research findings compelled the
orientation, religious preference and
Association of American Medical
other aspects of culture. Nearly 1,000
Colleges (AAMC) to develop
people from more than 100 academic
instructional materials to acquaint
medical centers and universities have
school administrators and recruitment
viewed the AAMC training seminar
committees with the “unconscious bias” since its debut last March.
concept. Those materials include an
online tutorial, “What You Don’t Know:
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5