In the US, 14% of medical residents think black skins are thicker than whites and research found blacks are forced to "code switch" to "sound white" for better outcomes. On top of that, blacks are 34% less likely to be prescribed proper pain medicine for conditions such as abdominal pain, black women die at 3-4x the rate of white women during childbirth, are 22% more likely to die from heart disease, and 71% more likely to die from cervical cancer. As shocking as these numbers may seem, to hear actual racial bias in a real-life medical emergency is truly heartbreaking.

Although the disheartening data around unconscious bias is out there - blacks are 34% less likely to be prescribed proper pain medicine for conditions such as abdominal pain, black women die at 3-4x the rate of white women during childbirth, are 22% more likely to die from heart disease, and 71% more likely to die from cervical cancer - it's still really hard for people to believe it. So the idea is really simple: prove in a live experiment unconscious bias is a sad reality and leads to poor healthcare outcomes.

We targeted 2 different audiences: healthcare workers through healthcare influencers like Doctor Fred Nicacio (over 300K followers on instagram) in order to get them to take the unconscious bias online training and celebrities and influencers to invite a wider audience to sign the petition to make the unconscious bias training mandatory in hospitals accross america.

More than 30 calls were made to the 24 hour nurse hotlines altering between "white names" and "white voices" and "black names" and "black voices". The results were consistent to the data we had from papers about unconscious biases in medicine and fairly illustrated in our experiment. 77% of "Black name" and "Black voice" calls resulted in Urgent Care – protocol for minor injuries or illnesses- instead of the appropriate direction: Emergency Room – protocol for life-threatening conditions. We launched the video on March 8th, International Women's Day through the EmpowHer social media outlets and more than 20 social influencers with and audience of more than 7MM followers in total on launch day.

The video launched on International Women’s Day and received more than 7 million views on the first day alone. More than 1000 healthcare workers registered for and completed unconscious bias training through EmpowHerNY's platform within the first week of launch with the potential of saving thousands. With a 630% increase in online bias training and a 415% increase in online conversations, the project engaged dozens of influencers, from Oscar-winning actresses and female directors to activists and bloggers. These results prove that there is an appetite for change in the country and the medical industry.