25-05-2025
DEI dropped: Medical schools won't be graded on diversity amid federal, state crackdown
Citing state crackdowns on diversity, equity and inclusion, the organization that accredits medical schools has dropped diversity as a measure of the quality of medical education.
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education on May 19 voted to eliminate diversity programs and partnerships as criteria when it grades the performance of medical schools that confer "MD" degrees to students.
The liaison committee said it acted because new and proposed state laws targeting diversity, equity and inclusion conflict with the accrediting body's standards. Eliminating diversity standards would create "a single set of accreditation expectations with which all schools, regardless of their location and current legislative environment, must comply," the liaison committee said in a statement.
A liaison committee spokesperson said the committee made the decision after "thoughtful and careful consideration and discussion." Its two sponsoring organizations, the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association, did not answer questions from USA TODAY.
The decision to target diversity is a setback in efforts to attract medical students of all backgrounds, said doctors who have worked to promote diversity.
Dr. Virginia Caine, an Indiana University professor of medicine, said it's important for doctors to connect and communicate with different cultures.
"We're just dumbfounded by this decision made by LCME," said Caine, who serves as president of the National Medical Association, which represents Black physicians.
Caine said studies have shown that Black patients experience better health outcomes and engage more effectively when treated by Black physicians.
"We have such a rich and incredible history of talented Black physicians," said Caine, the public health department director of Marion County, Indiana. "If we knock out the access before they even are entering medical schools or academic schools, we're just going to be a nation that's not as creative, not as innovative and not as successful."
About 5.2% of the nation's doctors in 2022 identified as Black, according to a physician workforce report by the Association of American Medical Colleges. That's an improvement since 2019 when 2.6% of physicians identified as Black. Still, the share of Black doctors still doesn't match the 13.7% in the overall population.
About 6.3% of physicians in 2022 identified as Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin, which also significantly trails the overall population.
More than a half dozen states have enacted laws placing restrictions on diversity efforts at state institutions such as colleges and universities. Florida, for example, prohibits state institutions from giving preferential consideration for employment, admission, or promotion.
And after taking office for his second term, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to end diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the federal government and affirmative action in federal contracting.
To reflect its turn away from enforcing diversity standards at medical schools, the liaison committee said it's updating guidance for academic years 2025-26 and 2026-27.
The liaison committee assigns survey teams to assess medical schools on a dozen standards for items such as leadership, curriculum, faculty and medical student selection, support and services.
Schools that previously got diversity-related citations − or those preparing for accreditation − won't have to provide information on their diversity efforts, the liaison committee said.
The National Medical Association said the federal and state efforts to cut diversity, equity and inclusion is limiting access to medical education for the next generation of Black physicians.
Caine said the nation already has a physician shortage projected to worsen within 5 years when about 1 in 3 practicing physicians will reach retirement age.
"It's important for everybody," Caine said. All medical students "should have the ability to connect, to be open, to communicate with your patients. To do that, you have to have some level of understanding related to that culture."
Dr. Osose Oboh knows how important it is to reduce bias and improve trust with patients.
Oboh graduated medical school from Michigan State University and completed an internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins University. She now is completing a gastroenterology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.
Oboh said the federal and state crackdown on DEI - and the liaison committee's response - is "disheartening."
"There is an attack on something that is actually good," Oboh said. "Diversity has been rebranded as giving unqualified folks opportunity, when in reality, it's increasing exposure to qualified people."
She said bias in a medical setting can surface both among patients and doctors. Oboh, who is Black, said she recently gave "bad news" to a Black patient's family. She explained the diagnoses and next steps the medical team planned to take.
"They were so appreciative to receive it from me," Oboh said. "They understood why we were taking the steps we're taking and why we were going to do the interventions we were going to do. They felt like nobody else had explained it to them."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DEI at medical schools won't be won't be graded
