Diversity is essential to combat healthcare disparities, but a recent report shows that the number of underrepresented minorities graduating from U.S. medical schools is still disproportionately low.
White Coats for Black Lives (WC4BL) was formed by medical students in 2014 with the vision of safeguarding the well-being of patients and eliminating racial bias in healthcare. The organization’s membership aims to foster dialogue on racism as a public health concern, end racial discrimination in medical care and prepare future physicians to be advocates for racial justice. In addition to promoting diversity and inclusion, WC4BL believes academic medical centers must commit to policies and practices that intentionally promote racial justice. The organization espouses the belief that it is essential medical students feel free to share their views and be justice advocates.
Recently, WC4BL issued its second “Racial Justice Report Card,” an evaluation of 17 medical schools under 14 metrics looking at the institutions’ curriculum and climate. Evaluation criteria include underrepresented minority (URM) student representation, URM faculty representation, antiracism training and curriculum, URM recruitment and URM leadership.
“This information is highly important, specifically for the minority and underrepresented applicants to better understand the resources you may have at an institution,” says Michael D. Druitt, an assistant professor in the school of science and medical science and pre-health coordinator at Hampton University. “Having underrepresented minorities on staff to assist those students is essential to help those students feel comfortable while they’re there so they can perform at peak levels.”
The facts
“Medical schools should be paying close attention to rapidly changing demographics as the country grows more multicultural,” says Dr. Hugh E. Mighty, dean of the College of Medicine and vice president of clinical affairs at Howard University.
The medical profession does not represent the U.S. population. In 2018, only 11.2% of medical school graduates were Black, Latinx or Native American according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. There are also significant healthcare disparities, such as patients of color having limited access to academic medical centers. Included among the medical schools in the report are Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the University of Michigan Medical School and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Grading and research were conducted by students at the medical schools if relevant student groups at the individual schools responded to WC4BL’s request for them to participate in the study. Grades were given based on publicly available data for institutions whose relevant student groups did not respond to WC4BL’s invitation to participate in the study. WC4BL also conducted focus groups of current medical students. Each medical school dean was shown a draft of the report and given the opportunity to provide feedback.
