Black and Asian medical school students are less likely to gain membership into Alpha Omega Alpha — a distinguished medical honor society — than their white peers, according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Here are five things to know.
1. AΩA is open to med students of all races and ethnicities who rank in the top quartile of their class and are chosen for membership by a committee at their institution, according to YaleNews.
2. For the study, researchers from New Haven, Conn.-based Yale University examined data from the Electronic Residency Application Service, which med students use to apply to residency programs. Researchers analyzed information for 4,655 med students from 123 medical schools who applied to one of 12 residency programs at Yale-New Haven Hospital during the 2014-2015 academic year, according to the study.
3. Researchers found white med students were nearly six times more likely to be accepted into AΩA than black students and nearly two times more likely than Asian students, according to the study.
"In our fully adjusted model — which takes into account measures of professionalism, leadership, research and standardized test scores — underrepresented minorities are still less likely to be AΩA members," lead author Dowin Boatright, MD, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale, told YaleNews.
4. While the study did not find a significant difference in membership between white and Hispanic students, researchers believe the study's sample size of Hispanics may have been too small to achieve accurate findings for this population.
5. The study's findings highlight potential bias in the honor society's selection process, which may limit opportunities for black and Asian med students, the researchers concluded. Students with membership in a medical honor society are more likely to get into the residency program they want and more likely to become a professor, dean or department chair, according to the researchers.
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