Dive Brief:
- Medical schools overwhelmingly say they support diversity initiatives, with 89% highlighting diversity, equity and inclusion in their school’s mission, vision or values statements. And almost two-thirds have a plan in place to diversify faculty recruitment, according to a new report from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
- But only 35.6% of medical schools offer incentives for employees to meet DEI goals.
- Slightly more, 43.6%, reward faculty for DEI work through career advancement policies — taking it into account during tenure and promotion considerations.
Dive Insight:
Faculty at medical schools skew heavily toward White men, averaging 63.9% White and 58.6% male, according to a 2019 AAMC report. While the student body is slightly more diverse, a little over half of those who entered medical school in 2021 were White, according to AAMC data. And research has found that students from high-income households are overrepresented in medical schools, regardless of their race and ethnicity.
AAMC scored a vast majority of surveyed schools as doing well for their work to diversify their student populations. Researchers collected responses from 101 medical school deans in the United States and Canada. The responses represent 64% of medical schools in the U.S.
Every respondent had admissions policies that promoted diversity among students, according to AAMC, and 98% reported including student feedback in DEI decision-making. Less absolute was medical schools' progress toward a diverse teaching staff.
"Now we know where to focus our attention and how we can assist our member institutions," Dr. Malika Fair, senior director of equity and social accountability at AAMC and co-author of the report, said in a statement.
Surveyed schools reported investing in data-driven hiring, including strategically advertising open positions to candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. Two-thirds of medical schools require departments filling faculty positions to consider a diverse pool of candidates. Some also retained a DEI advocate to sit on the hiring committee.
But only 48.5% of medical schools surveyed make demographic data of their faculty, staff, students and leadership widely available to campus. That's despite 80.2% having the data available for DEI planning purposes.
Medical schools should design and enforce accountability measures for DEI goals, according to the report. And moreover, they should demonstrate how people across departments are meant to fulfill them, the report said.
