There’s a famous quote from to kill a Mockingbird. 
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his or her point of view until you climb into his or her skin and walk around in it.”

Hello, I am Dr. Margaret Larkins Pettigrew.

I’m a practicing obstetrician gynecologist, as well as the Executive Director of the Office of Community Impact, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion here at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio. I would like you to join me in exploring racial biases by following Atticus Finch, his suggestion to his daughter, Scout by understanding the impact of bias through your patient’s eyes. 

What we’re asking is for you to take an honest look at yourself, a truthful assessment of the way you interact with your patients. 

This is a safe place, a place where you will have the opportunity to explore your own biases and begin to make a change that can have a significant impact on the most important benefit health professionals can offer to another human being, care with compassion. 

The truth is we all have biases, but do we understand how our biases influence the care we provide our patients What we do know is the greater the bias, the lower the quality of care we give to our patients. 

In this journey, you are going to explore health, in particular, health aligned with a delivery of a new life as experienced through the eyes of mothers, fathers, and their families, as well as all who participate in providing that particular healthcare recognition is the first step, and we hope that this journey will be thought provoking and eye opening. 

As you react on how you can begin to affect change in all you come in contact with, we believe this can only assist in providing the best care possible for your patients. 

Your answers are de-identified. These will not be shared with your employer, so please join us on this journey for yourselves as well as for the families you care for.