Development Process and Evaluation of an Anti-racism Primer and Toolkit for Medical Educators.

INTRODUCTION

Medical educators are expected to address racism and health inequities in their curricula but may feel ill-equipped to do so. Currently, resources to support educators in reviewing and revising curricula through an anti-racism lens are limited. We describe the development process and evaluation of an anti-racism primer and toolkit for medical educators to support curriculum development.  Methods: In 2020, three members of the University of California, San Francisco Differences Matter Educational Action Group collaborated to create an iterative, self-directed tool to support educators in creating and revising teaching materials to be anti-racist: the Anti-Racism and Race Literacy: Primer and Toolkit for Medical Educators (Anti-Racism Primer). From August 2020, all medical educators in pre-clinical coursework were recommended to use the Anti-Racism Primer for their curricular materials and asked to complete a feedback survey with questions related to the primer's effectiveness for anti-racism knowledge and curricular revisions.

RESULTS

We received 82 survey responses from 40 content creators and 42 facilitators. Twenty-seven (67.6%) of content creators use the toolkit to revise curricular materials. Twenty (74.1%) content creators who used the toolkit strongly agreed that the Anti-Racism Primer helped them reflect on their materials. Over half (55.6%) strongly agreed they made revisions using the Anti-Racism Primer, and a third felt it made their materials more equitable. Respondents described examples of revisions they made, including increased inclusive language, eliminating racial stereotypes, diversification of photos, and more precise use of genetic ancestry to describe population risk.

CONCLUSION

The Anti-Racism Primer is an effective resource for medical educators to support their understanding and incorporation of anti-racism into curricular materials. Dissemination as an institutionally supported resource supports utilization and can amplify pre-existing efforts toward equitable change. Future steps include studies about the impact of such resources on learners and further evaluation of faculty development needs.