This bias not only has a negative impact on the patient’s level of care, it is detrimental to the patient’s confidence in the medical community.  In a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, black patients indicated that their confidence in medical providers was lacking and rated their quality of care as poorer” (DeAngelis, 2019).   It has been found that “black patients felt most negatively toward physicians who were low in explicit bias but high in implicit bias, demonstrating the validity of the implicit-bias theory in real-world medical interactions” (DeAngelis, 2019).

This implicit bias is having a real impact on patients who are members of marginalized communities.  “Prejudice in healthcare negatively and disproportionately impacts stroke, cardiovascular, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, depression and anxiety among those discriminated against” (Togioka et al., 2022).   While race is certainly one of the prime indicators of discrimination within a professional healthcare system, there is evidence that “‘providers’ communication is less-patient centered with members of… other stigmatized groups including patients with obesity” (Phelan et al., 2015).  

Additionally, discrimination has been manifested within transgender people, where there is a disparity in transgender-focused education materials available to health professionals.  Furthermore, there are a lack of policies necessary to accommodate transgender identities in medical documentations such as referral forms and prescriptions. (Bauer et al., 2009).  While there are certainly overt prejudices against people in America that affect their quality of life, the implicit biases that they face from the healthcare industry are equally as troubling.