Abstract PO-029: Successful implementation of implicit bias awareness training to support a lung cancer patient organization's health equity strategy
Authors: Regnante Jeanne M. , Freeman-Watkins Cherri , Netter Barbara , Alfonzo Kim Greenfield- , Ferris Andrea A. 
Published: December 2020

With the COVID 19 pandemic raging across America, the disparities of care in lung cancer have been amplified. We have seen this effect in cities and communities across America, where racial and ethnic minority groups are significantly affected. An abundant volume of research attests that many groups of patients receive a significantly lower quality of care—that is, substandard care—attributable in part to biases held by health care providers. Despite these attitudes operating outside the provider’s conscious awareness, they can compromise patient care. LUNGevity Foundation’s health equity strategy focuses on engaging vulnerable lung cancer populations through trusted community engagement and amplifying current staff capablities. One of the contributing factors is inherent implicit bias amongst individuals and the need for the entire LUNGevity staff (n=32) to understand, accept and change their own implicit bias in order to engage vulnerable lung cancer populations, model respect and understand behaviors. We report on the approach and the preliminary results of the effectiveness of an implicit bias training program delivered to the staff of a national lung cancer patient advocacy organization (PAG).

A qualified and experienced DC based organization delivered a training program to the entire LUNGevity Staff (n=32) to support LUNGevity Foundation’s Health Equity Strategy. The Chief Equity Officer was interviewed in advance of the training to align on objectives and measurement themes for the training. Two 90-minute sessions via ZOOM were delivered to PAG staff in June 2020 to visualize and define implicit bias, identify the types of implicit bias, and to probe how implicit bias may impact community outreach of vulnerable communities with lung cancer. Finally, the goal was to determine what each staff member can do to accept their biases and to change them. Qualitative and quantitative data was summarized as follows: • 86% of respondents indicated that they better understand Implicit Bias. • 82% of the respondents indicated that the training allowed them to understand their own implicit biases. The following comments are representative of the benefit of implicit bias training: “…we will need to be aware of and avoid confirmation bias, or making judgments or assumptions fueled by stereotypes”. “…. some communities may not feel comfortable speaking with someone who is not their ethnicity. We have to find trusted ways to help them trust us so we can help them” The training enabled LUNGevity staff to understand their implicit bias and may be applicable to other PAG in the US who look to engage racial and ethnic minority populations with success. A Phase II Implicit Bias Training will focus on specific actions each individual can take to address their biases. A plan will be developed and monitored by leadership to determine if the foundation’s ultimate goal to increase outreach and engagement in vulnerable populations is further impacted by ongoing implicit bias staff training.

Citation Format: Jeanne M. Regnante, Cherri Freeman-Watkins, Barbara Netter, Kim Greenfield- Alfonzo, Andrea A. Ferris. Successful implementation of implicit bias awareness training to support a lung cancer patient organization's health equity strategy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Conference: Thirteenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2020 Oct 2-4. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(12 Suppl):Abstract nr PO-029.