Introduction

This blog is about medical education in the US and around the world. My interest is in education research and the process of medical education.



The lawyers have asked that I add a disclaimer that makes it clear that these are my personal opinions and do not represent any position of any University that I am affiliated with including the American University of the Caribbean, the University of Kansas, the KU School of Medicine, Florida International University, or the FIU School of Medicine. Nor does any of this represent any position of the Northeast Georgia Medical Center or Northeast Georgia Health System.



Friday, July 26, 2013

Diversity in Medical Education, Part I

Do we need diversity in our medical schools? Let me say right at the beginning. The answer is emphatically and non-equivocally YES!

One of the important values inherent in this discussion is that the medical school class and then subsequently the graduating physicians should look like the general population of the United States. Right now it does not. Medical students are richer (or at least their families are), more suburban, and they are much more white than the overall population.

Why is this important?  Well for one reason, students may not have had exposures to people that are different than they are when they were growing up. A survey in Academic Medicine  from two medical schools (Harvard and UCSF) found that only 27% of medical students reported having frequent contact with people of different races or ethnicities when they were “growing up”(1). The number increased to 41% by the time they got to college, but the message is clear. Students rarely had contact during their formative years with people that looked or sounded or saw the world differently than they did.

A diverse medical school class will be a better class of students. I would like to define diverse very broadly. It is not just about having more than just white students. Yes, it is important to have black students, and hispanic students, and asian students, and native american students. But other aspects of diversity are important. We need students from rural counties, who grew up on a farm. We need students from low income brackets. We need students from other countries, who see the world differently than I do. We need gay and lesbian students, and older students, and women..... And so on. You get the idea?

But, it does not happen by chance. Every school has to work constantly to make their class diverse.

I have heard many discussions about this during the admissions process. It is not overt racism or classism or urbanism. No, it is more subtle. There are suggestions that it is unfair to put students into a situation where they might fail. There is a suggestion that the students are less prepared or less able to handle the academic rigor of medical school. There is a reminder of other students that have struggled. All of this is said by well-meaning faculty, but the reality is that the variables that they are talking about do not have much to do with how good a doctor a student is going to be. Does the MCAT predict that? Absolutely not! Does USMLE Step I predict that? Again, no. How about performance in their college courses? Still, no.

I heard Darrell Kirsch, MD, the president of the AAMC talking about the new MCAT a while back. The most important statement that he made (from my perspective) was that schools that continue to emphasize the MCAT and GPA will by that very act be anti-diverse. That is a pretty bold statement, but completely defensible. If the admissions committee only looks at numbers (GPA, MCAT) the admissions process is going to be biased against non-white, non-urban, non-wealthy students. I would put forth that for most schools much of the admissions process is biased against minority, rural, and lower income students. 

I will talk about each of these in my next blog and put forth some ideas to make the admissions process better.

References

21 comments:

  1. Wow! Thank you! I I have just been searching for information about this topic for ages and yours is the greatest I’ve discovered so far. permanently wanted to inscribe lying on my website amazing like that. Can I implement a part of your post to my site? our site abouthtemcat.com preparation of Medical College Admission Test. here are good informative stuff mcat for study.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dwell on the warm, care-giving aspects of assisting someone in need... Maybe even throw in something about birthing cos and horses... professional free essay editing from Montreal Make a POSITIVE statement and think not only information, but lifestyle.



    ReplyDelete
  5. It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato. ed-wiki

    ReplyDelete
  6. very good work and go on, http://writing-college-essay.com/ they really liked me! good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Useful information shared..I am very happy to read this article..thanks :)
    Buy essay.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great post! It will significantly help me with my project. By the way, I'd be glad to share with you that I always use free essay editing services.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This information is really useful! Thanks for sharing! By the way, I know where you can use free essay editing services.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I just want to let you know that I just check out your site and I find it very interesting and informative. I can't wait to read lots of your posts.
    fluoxetine hcl 20mg capsule

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for great article, I need to tell to to you that free essay editing services is not bad at all

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for sharing! It was interesting to read. I also welcome you to
    express-essays.com

    ReplyDelete
  13. Good articl about Diversity in Medical Education. Diversity has to be in basic education too. Once I had a task to write an essay on topic "Education in USA". I ordered it on essay service. over here - best-essays-writers.cim =)

    ReplyDelete
  14. This article is really fantastic and thanks for sharing the valuable post... Geography Coursework Help

    ReplyDelete
  15. Medical education really hard and requires a lot of time and attention.So if you need any kind of education help feel free and contact with us!www.advanced-writer.com

    ReplyDelete
  16. A reliable http://essays-shark.net custom writing service. We offer low prices, high-quality papers, an educated staff and a chance to choose an appropriate writer

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi! Thanks a lot for sharing this info with us! I like your title, and I know how hard it is to write a quality article, essay or report! But don't worry, because http://www.essay-mania.com always help for who needs it!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I agree with you that a diverse medical school class will be a better class of students. I see the reason in your thoughts! Thanks for sharing your opinion. You're lucky one, your writing skills are perfect, but me - I'm not so fortunate - that's why I use papers-writings.com to complete my papers, articles etc.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks a lot of this article! My youngest sister study now in medical faculty, and i think read this will be very useful for she! By the way visit site http://essay-professors.com and you will not regret!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Impressed with your content, you discuss a very crucial issue. One who is going to get a good education should possess very nice writing skills, as long as there is a huge amount of writing assignments at college or university. Everyone can also get professional help http://www.grand-essays.com/ and succeed in high quality original papers writing.

    ReplyDelete