Robert A. Cain and Barbara Ross-Lee
This month, a very significant event for millions of Americans took place: the National Resident Matching Program’s annual residency match. This is when medical school graduates hope to find a residency program where they will continue their graduate medical education.
These are the physicians who will be caring for you and me, and our children and grandchildren.
While we celebrate these students’ achievements, when we look at the numbers, we see that our goal of creating a physician workforce that is representative of our nation still falls short.
Studies show we are heading for a physician shortage crisis, but the shortage of minority doctors is a crisis we are already facing — and have for over a century.
To overcome this challenge, we must look at the applicants our medical schools are reaching out to and matriculating.
We must take concrete steps to ensure that opportunities for underrepresented students continue to expand.
As medical educators, we are committed to advancing opportunities that will help foster a diverse physician workforce that more accurately represents our nation’s patient population. But we cannot do this alone.
In an important first step, the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) issued a statement that recognized that the inequities of America’s education system are adversely impacting the diversity of medical school applicants.
The statement also outlines model strategies to support diversity, equity, and inclusion across medical education.
The most recent data on students starting osteopathic medical school shows that women made up 52 percent of the cohort, the highest percentage in history. The numbers for women of color were up as well.
While this is great progress, we must also attract and retain Black male student doctors, the number of which has barely risen in the past 120 years.
No project is more exciting than the proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, which is expected to have its first students in fall 2024.
This will be the first new medical school at a historically Black university in nearly 50 years.
This will help with two main goals: increase the number of Black doctors entering the profession and, in turn, increase the likelihood of Black patients having access to Black physicians.
The American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) Academic Recognition Program, launched last summer, is available to medical students across the United States and focuses on inequities, disparities, and the circumstances that may contribute to them.
By better preparing doctors to practice in all communities, we hope to improve patient outcomes while strengthening relationships and trust between patients and physicians.
That relationship is the cornerstone for the success of any treatment plan.
Research has shown that African Americans are two times more likely to die of heart disease and stroke than white Americans. They also have higher rates of cancer, diabetes and pneumonia.
While there are many factors contributing to these health inequities, an understandable diminished sense of trust in the medical profession by many in the Black community has led to a breakdown in the doctor-patient relationship.
We need more Black physicians to have healthier communities across our nation.
It is up to us to take the steps necessary to make higher education more equitable and accessible. As osteopathic medical educators, we are ready to do our part, both for our students and the patients they will go on to heal, while understanding that we cannot do this work alone.
We invite you to join us as we work together toward a healthier, more equitable future.
Robert A. Cain is a doctor of osteopathic medicine and president and CEO of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. Barbara Ross-Lee is president and CEO of the proposed Maryland College of Osteopathic Medicine at Morgan State.