A recent study found that standards introduced by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education led to a marginal increase in diversity in medical school admissions, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Here are five things to know:
- The LCME introduced two diversity accreditation standards in 2009 that mandated all U.S. allopathic medical schools engage in systemic efforts to attract and retain students from diverse programs. The standards did not set numerical goals, but sought to ensure all medical schools have a "mission-appropriate" diversity policy.
- The Dec. 4 research letter, published in the journal JAMA, compared medical school diversity statistics from 120 schools in 2002 and 2017, as medical schools are typically reviewed every eight years. Historically black medical schools and institutions in Puerto Rico were not considered in the analysis.
- Researchers found that in 2002, 49 percent of newly-enrolled students were women, 6.8 percent were black, 5.4 percent were Hispanic and 20.8 percent were Asian. In 2017, the percentages of newly-enrolled women, black, Hispanic and Asian students increased to 50.4 percent, 7.3 percent, 8.9 percent and 24.6 percent, respectively.
- Study authors noted that the differences in enrollment across minority populations during the study period were minor, and that many medical schools may have had diversity initiatives in place prior to the LCME's requirements. However, researchers found the enrollment percentage of women and black students dropped marginally during the eight years prior to the LCME's 2009 standards.
- Dowin Boatright, MD, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., told the Yale News the LCME's standards "do make a difference. It is a tool that diversity advocates didn't have before to implement diversity programs."
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