Current News
Articles from throughout the medical community pertaining to diversity, equity and inclusion
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Women of Color Need Courageous Allies in the Academy - This webinar is just the beginning, as INSIGHT Into Diversity brings Black and White women together to share their experiences, perspectives, and potential solutions to these common and often challenging interactions. At a time when many people are overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent racial unrest throughout our country, the willingness and knowledge of how to effectively engage with one another is essential. We hope to prepare participants to be equipped with some tools that all women can use to support one another more effectively. A summary of the webinar, including interviews with Dr. Karen Dace and Dr. Laura Belmonte, will be featured in the upcoming September issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity, available online August 17.
A Physician's Perspective on Minority Health - Over time, I began to understand the magnitude of the disparity between the health of the minority population and the majority population. This entire article could explore the differences in health indicators between white people and minority populations. Instead, there is a dimension of this problem that feels equally important to me, as a physician. Health care providers have been aware of the disparity to some degree for years and have been in the difficult, almost arrogant, position of attempting to reduce it without the information needed to have an impact. It is that dimension I will address here.
To save Black lives, we need more Black doctors - The Black community has suffered the highest death rates from Covid-19, and the numbers are staggering. Black people are nearly three times more likely than White people to contract the virus, and twice as likely to die from it, according to a report from the National Urban League. There are many factors that contribute to these disparities, including the fact that Black people are disproportionately represented in essential jobs that cannot be performed at home, and they are more likely to live in housing with a high number of occupants.
Lack of access to quality and affordable health care is also an important factor -- and one facet of the issue is glaring but has gotten very little attention: There are too few Black doctors.
For Doctors of Color, Microaggressions Are All Too Familiar - Only 5 percent of the American physician work force is African-American, and roughly 2 percent are Black women. When Dr. Onyeka Otugo was doing her training in emergency medicine, in Cleveland and Chicago, she was often mistaken for a janitor or food services worker even after introducing herself as a doctor. She realized early on that her white male counterparts were not experiencing similar mix-ups. “People ask me several times if the doctor is coming in, which can be frustrating,” said Dr. Otugo, who is now an emergency medicine attending physician and health policy fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “They ask you if you’re coming in to take the trash out — stuff they wouldn’t ask a physician who was a white male.”
Now more than ever, academic medicine needs to promote talented women - The current pandemic makes clear how much we need to attract, retain, and advance all talented physicians and researchers. The new AAMC State of Women in Academic Medicine report highlights key advances — and the challenges that remain. As COVID-19 continues to pummel communities across the country, the need to attract, retain, and promote talented health and science professionals — including women and members of underrepresented communities — has never been greater.
Why is my community suffering more from COVID-19? - Whether you survive a pandemic should not depend on your race or ethnicity. Here's what one physician of color says needs to happen to ensure that all patients have the chance to live a healthy life.
Diversity Education Is Not Enough - Friendship Is the Key to Bridging Ideological Differences. "Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything."
– Muhammad Ali
The ACGME is proud to announce the ACGME Diversity and Inclusion Award - This award will celebrate initiatives in which diverse learners are developed, diverse faculties are constructed, and the GME community embraces differences and highlights them as examples of what is achievable. The award recognizes ACGME-accredited Sponsoring Institutions and programs, as well as specialty organizations working to diversify the underrepresented physician workforce and create inclusive workplaces that foster humane, civil, and equitable environments.