In an effort to shrink the gap between the proportion of Americans who are minorities and the proportion of minority physicians in the United States, the Association of American Medical Colleges, or AAMC, has launched a two-year campaign to recruit black, Hispanic/Latino and Native American students into medicine.
AAMC Campaign Focuses on Minority Students
By News Staff
11/27/2006
The campaign will highlight AspiringDocs.org, a Web site designed to encourage minority students to apply to medical school. In addition, the effort will establish pilot outreach activities at the University of Arizona, Tucson; the University of Pittsburgh; California State University, Fresno; and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick/Piscataway.
Blacks, Hispanics and Latinos, and Native Americans comprise 25 percent of the U.S. population but make up only 12 percent of students who graduate from U.S. medical schools, according to the AAMC. Only 6 percent of all practicing physicians are members of these minority groups.
“We must change the face of medicine to reflect our nation’s growing diversity,” said AAMC President Darrell Kirch, M.D., in a Nov. 16 news release announcing the campaign.
Diversity among practicing physicians would help close the health gap between members of minority communities and Caucasians, according to the AAMC. The organization cited studies showing that minority physicians are more likely to treat minority, underserved and indigent communities. Moreover, increasing diversity in the medical student population will enhance cultural competence for all new physicians, according to the AAMC.
“Exposure to racial and ethnic diversity in medical school contributes importantly to the cultural competence of all of tomorrow’s doctors,” says the AAMC's Physician Diversity Fact Sheet. (PDF file: 2 pages / 81 KB. More about PDFs.)
Blacks, Hispanics and Latinos, and Native Americans comprise 25 percent of the U.S. population but make up only 12 percent of students who graduate from U.S. medical schools, according to the AAMC. Only 6 percent of all practicing physicians are members of these minority groups.
“We must change the face of medicine to reflect our nation’s growing diversity,” said AAMC President Darrell Kirch, M.D., in a Nov. 16 news release announcing the campaign.
Diversity among practicing physicians would help close the health gap between members of minority communities and Caucasians, according to the AAMC. The organization cited studies showing that minority physicians are more likely to treat minority, underserved and indigent communities. Moreover, increasing diversity in the medical student population will enhance cultural competence for all new physicians, according to the AAMC.
“Exposure to racial and ethnic diversity in medical school contributes importantly to the cultural competence of all of tomorrow’s doctors,” says the AAMC's Physician Diversity Fact Sheet. (PDF file: 2 pages / 81 KB. More about PDFs.)
