Home

Minorities in Medicine - Continued, 12th Report

  1   Page 2   3  

Trends in Minority Participation in Medicine

Minorities are underrepresented at all levels of medicine. In 1997, black Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians/Alaska Natives represented approximately 23.6 percent of the population, while only 12.2 percent of all enrollees in allopathic -medical schools were underrepresented minorities.* Between 1996 and 1997, there was a 7.1 percent decline in underrepresented minority new entrants to U.S. medical schools. Moreover, minorities who attend medical school may find themselves with few minority role models and mentors, since minorities still are greatly underrepresented on faculties of U.S. allopathic medical schools. After reviewing medical school enrollments and other data, the report sets new goals for minority representation in medicine.

[D]
_{Source: AAMC Section for Student Services}

[D]

_{Source: AAMC Faculty Roster System}

Programs to Increase Minority Representation in Medicine

This section of the report describes efforts designed to attract minorities into medicine and support them throughout their undergraduate and medical school education. Successful programs include high school and undergraduate science and health career programs; articulation agreements between high schools, colleges, and medical schools; academic enrichment programs; and the inclusion of strong minority affairs offices in medical schools. Public and private monies have supported these programs. Admission policies that do not rely solely on Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores and grade point averages may be successful in producing highly qualified physicians.

The report also argues that affirmative action efforts to address ongoing barriers to minority entry in medicine continue to be necessary to achieve equity. Recent court rulings have weakened affirmative action measures. California's Proposition 209, prohibiting consideration of race or gender in education, contracting, or public employment, may have produced a far-reaching ripple effect on minority student entry in medical school. Historically, federal courts have upheld race-based preferences to cure present effects of past discrimination, to address manifest imbalance in the representation of racial groups within specific categories, and to foster diversity in student admissions. Courts have looked more favorably on programs that: remedy racial imbalance and do not simply maintain racial balance; do not violate the rights of non-minorities; have flexible goals as opposed to quotas; are not arbitrarily structured; are not perpetual; and are alternatives to race-neutral efforts that have failed or are unworkable.

Recommendations

Based on its findings, COGME makes the following recommendations in order to move toward greater equity for minorities in medicine and to improve the health status of minorities.

GROUP 1 RECOMMENDATIONS: The last 20 years have provided insight into the programs and resources required to facilitate minority entry into medicine. To strengthen and sustain these efforts, and to achieve proportionate minority representation in medicine, COGME makes the following recommendations:

1. Critically examine the role of standardized test scores and grade point averages for admission to medical school and resident placement. These measures may be more predictive of science achievement than success as a physician. Criteria to determine alternative characteristics desirable in medical students need to be developed.

2. Allow osteopathic medical schools and partners with osteopathic schools to have full access to funds to enhance minority entry into medicine and science careers.

3. Encourage public and private organizations to agree collectively upon a nationwide strategy for duplicating successful models and dedicate a budget to developing, implementing, and evaluating the impact of these strategies. Widely disseminate and publicize successful programs.

4. To continue to make progress toward a more representative participation of minorities in medicine, establish a goal of 4,500 underrepresented minority medical school matriculants by the year 2010 and 6,000 by the year 2020. Resources and efforts to achieve these goals should reflect an understanding of the enormous challenges the nation will face in reaching these objectives. Appropriate targets should be met at every point of the educational pipeline, beginning in middle school.

5. Encourage and reward collaborative efforts to increase the number of academically prepared minority students, between and among institutions at multiple levels of the education continuum, using governmental matching funds and financial incentives to academic medical centers.

6. Develop partnerships with national and local media, advertising agencies, and video companies to implement innovative, culturally appropriate campaigns describing opportunities in science and health careers for minority and disadvantaged children.

7. Support more research to assess the impact of rising medical student debt on the entry of minorities into medicine and on the future impact of such debt on career choice and place of service.

8. Assure the availability of financial assistance to underrepresented minorities throughout all levels of education through public and private sector scholarships and loans.