A patient-centered approach to clinical care is associated with improved adherence, greater patient and clinician satisfaction, increased trust, reduced anxiety, and better health outcomes. Patient-centered communication (PCC) emphasizes skills such as active listening, empathy, partnership building, and understanding patients’ experiences and social context to strengthen the clinician-patient relationship. However, disparities in PCC can occur across patient groups, and clinician implicit bias – attitudes or stereotypes that influence behavior – may contribute to less patient-centered interactions and lower patient trust.

This article examines whether completing a brief online course on health equity/implicit bias in healthcare impacted clinicians’ PCC.