Exploring the Complexity of Considering Race in the Practice of Medicine.

Introduction: In recent years, educators and clinicians have advocated moving away from race-based medicine toward race-conscious medicine. Yet, few studies have evaluated the impact of teaching preclerkship medical students skills to critically evaluate various frameworks for understanding the role of race in clinical decision-making. This educational innovation was designed to review various frameworks, prompt clinical evaluation, and evaluate how student perspectives were shaped by their learning. Methods: We delivered a 90-minute interactive session focused on recognizing, appraising, and considering alternatives to the framework of race-based medicine. Ninety-two first-year medical students attended this mandatory session. Student opinions on how race should be used in medicine were measured via pre- and postsession Likert-style surveys (response rates 57% and 48%). Results: While most students initially thought race was a helpful marker of genetically associated disease risk, postsession responses shifted significantly ( Discussion: This single session presentation led to increased concern regarding the use of race-based tools and guidelines in medicine. It supports the value of clinically relevant discussions of race and medicine with preclerkship medical students.