International Survey Study of ICU Admission Decisions Exploring Gender and Ethnic Bias Using Randomized Patient Case Scenarios

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are investigating whether men and women, as well as different ethnic groups, are admitted to Intensive Care Units ICUs with equal likelihood and fairness. This study aims to determine if non-medical factors like gender or ethnicity influence ICU admission decisions, despite clinical guidelines stating these should not affect admission. The study will explore whether unconscious biases exist in how clinicians decide who needs intensive care, focusing on critically ill patients and the potential disparities in their treatment. The study uses a randomized survey method where intensive care physicians will review multiple patient cases that vary in age, health conditions, and physiological status. Each case will be randomly assigned a male or female gender and a typical or non-typical national name to represent ethnicity, without the physicians knowing this randomization. Physicians will quickly decide whether they would admit each patient to the ICU, simulating real-world decision-making under normal and resource-limited conditions. Participants will complete the survey online, which is designed to take less than 10 minutes. The study will measure how often men versus women and patients of different ethnic backgrounds are admitted to the ICU based on physician responses. It will also track the time taken to make admission decisions. The results aim to reveal possible biases in ICU admissions over approximately one year of data collection, helping to improve fairness in critical care resource allocation.

Ethnic and Gender Based Admittance Patterns in the ICU