Building a Diverse Workforce Is Our Collective Responsibility
I was thrilled to recently read this story that medical school applicants are up 18 percent, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). We know that people of color have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and applicants from underrepresented Americans is helping drive the surge. The fact remains that there is a scarcity of Black physicians in medicine with only about 5 percent identifying as such, according to the AAMC. We all must do our part to successfully address the underlying causes of health disparities in this country.
At CommonSpirit Health we’re focused on building a diverse workforce and recently partnered with Morehouse School of Medicine to develop and train more Black physicians. Our 10-year, $100 million partnership will establish five new regional medical school campuses and graduate medical education programs in at least 10 markets with CommonSpirit healthcare facilities. We also will ensure a minimum of 300 additional underrepresented providers complete their residency training annually and support a pipeline of students recruited from communities that have a historical provider shortage.
Training the next generation of diverse physicians is a critical next step in rebuilding the health care system in our country, so it is inclusive of all.
SVP Corp Dev & Ventures | Strategy | M&A | Board Advisor | CX
4 年Welp, it's a start. Looking forward to seeing more great minds go into healthcare. Thanks for sharing Lloyd Dean
F?rsatlar Pusludur Herkes G?remez
4 年https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201002111724.htm#:~:text=Summary%3A,the%20ongoing%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic I recommend you to look
System Director Clinical Health Equity at CommonSpirit Health
4 年Thank you
C-Suite Physician Executive; Transformational Leadership; Health Justice Advocate | Author of "Care Evolution: Essays on Health as a Social Imperative"
4 年Simply increasing the number of BIPOC medical students will not achieve true equity as long as our systems of training and practice are driven by Euro-centric standards of "respectability" and professional achievement. Our healthcare ecosystem continues to preferentially select who succeeds based on their “fit” with the existing culture, and their ability to sustain it. In evolutionary biology there is a construct of “convergence” which is where otherwise unrelated species must evolve similar phenotypical features (like white coats, the biomedical model, or respectability politics) in order to survive; species that don’t converge are forced out (or into extinction). "Inclusion" is more than a seat at the table, but respecting and honoring differences of culture and ethnicity and ensuring that their voice, and its effect, are equitably embedded in decisions made at all levels of society - no matter how uncomfortable it may make people currently in power. Uché Blackstock, MD