Thinking with two brains: Student perspectives on the presentation of race in pre-clinical medical education.

Context: There is growing concern that during their education medical students come to believe that 'race' is a biological construct and that differential treatment of patients based on 'race' is clinically beneficial. How 'race' is presented to medical students may influence both their implicit biases and future clinical practices, potentially widening racial disparities in care.

Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews with twenty-two pre-clinical mostly non-White medical students attending a public medical school in a major metropolitan area in the northeastern United States.