maternal health outcomes compared to white women. they also face greater challenges when it comes to breast cancer, and are more likely to be misdiagnosed and more likely to die. in her book, the cancer journals, audre lorde speaks about her unpleasant experiences as a black female breast cancer patient, her troubling experiences with physicians and caretakers, and her struggle to find strength after undergoing a mastectomy. in recent years, new outlets have published numerous first and second-hand accounts about black women and women of color experiencing adverse maternal health care and outcomes throughout the us. pro-publica and npr published a story about racial disparities in maternal mortality and the birth experience of dr. shalon irving, a cdc epidemiologist studying how structural inequality influences health. although many women still face gender bias in their experiences with the healthcare system, progress has been made toward a more equitable system. the laura w. bush institute for women's health at texas tech university was founded in 2007, and has been a leader in the integration of "sex-specific instruction in medical education." the team at texas tech created a curriculum for medical schools to include sex-differences in medical education, and ten schools are currently using the curriculum. it is likely that bias against females patients will continue to exist in medicine, but medical schools and institutions are working toward addressing the problem, and will likely continue addressing it for a long time. medical research is slow to move into the practice stage, so even as more research is done on bias against women and how to better treat women, it will be a long time before these effects are seen. avoiding gender bias in order to avoid gender bias in medical diagnosing, researchers should conduct all studies with both male and female subjects in their samples. healthcare workers should not assume all men and women are the same, even if they display similar symptoms. in a study done to analyze gender bias, a physician in the research sample stated, '"i am solely a professional, neutral and genderless"'. while a seemingly positive statement, this kind of thought process can ultimately lead to gender biasing because it fails to note the real differences between men and women that must be taken into account when diagnosing a patient. other ways to avoid gender bias includes diagnostic checklists which help to increase accuracy, evidenced-based assessments and facilitation of informed choices.