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Racial/Ethnic Diversity: Reports

More Battles Looming over Affirmative Action
Association of American Medical Colleges - August 2008
"This November, votes in three states could continue to erode the ability of public institutions, including many medical schools, to employ race- and gender-based hiring and admissions policies such as affirmative action."  Read More...

Top Ten Medical Schools for Hispanic Students, 2008
Hispanic Business Magazine, August 28, 2008
This ranking provides a brief profile of each of the ten schools, including the percent Hispanic graduate enrollment, percent M.D. degrees earned by Hispanics, percent full time Hispanic medical faculty, and a brief description of the University's commitment to diversity how they are achieving this mission.  Read More...

One Size Does Not Fit All: Meeting the Health Care Needs of Diverse Populations
The Joint Commission and California Endowment, 2008
"Racial and ethnic health disparities are linked to poorer health outcomes and lower quality care. Language and cultural issues can have a significant impact on these disparities when not addressed by health care organizations." Read More...

Identifying and Evaluating Equity Provisions in State Health Care Reform
The Commonwealth Fund, April 2008
"This report seeks to identify state policies that promote equitable health care access and quality and to evaluate existing laws, regulations or reform proposals in five states." Read More...

Physician Diversity in California: New Findings from the California Medical Board Survey
Center for California Health Workforce Studies at the University of California, San Francisco, March 2008
"This report examines new data from the California Medical Board Relicensure Survey that provide a detailed profile of the ethnic characteristics of physicians in the state. The findings of this report document that a huge gap remains in California between the ethnic composition of the state's population and the state's physician workforce." Read More...

Roadmap to Diversity: Key Legal and Educational Policy Foundations for Medical Schools
Association of American Medical Colleges, March 2008
"Roadmap to Diversity is the first in a series of publications to help medical schools align admission to mission, and establish and implement institution-specific, diversity-related policies that will advance their core educational goals with minimal legal risk." Read More...

AAMC Analysis in Brief: "After Affirmative Action: Diversity at California Medical Schools"
Association of American Medical Colleges, September 2008
"In 1996, Californians approved Proposition 209, a ballot initiative codifying the elimination of race-conscious admissions at the state's public institutions. The impact of this ballot initiative on racial and ethnic diversity in medical schools has been difficult to determine, although previous research found dramatic reductions in the number of underrepresented minority students who applied, were accepted, and matriculated to California medical schools."  Read More...

A Profile of New York's Underrepresented Minority Physicians
Center for Health Workforce Studies, School of Public Health University at Albany, SUNY, July 2008
"There is growing attention to the importance of diversity – especially racial/ethnic diversity – within the health workforce.  However, some racial and ethnic minority groups are substantially underrepresented in the national physician workforce compared to their proportion in the general population. These underrepresented minorities (URMs) include Blacks/African-Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and American Indians/Alaska Natives."  Read More…

The Economic Burden of Health Inequalities in the United States
September 2009 – Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
"This study, commissioned by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and carried out by leading researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, provides important insight into how much of a financial burden racial disparities are putting on our health care system and society at large."  Read More…

Low-Income and Minority Serving Institutions: Management Attention to Long-Standing Concerns Needed to Improve Education's Oversight of Grant Program
August 2009 – Government Accountability Office
"Institutions that serve large proportions of low-income and minority students may receive funding under Titles III and V of the Higher Education Act. In fiscal year 2008, $667 million in grants were awarded to over 500 institutions. GAO was asked to determine (1) the characteristics of institutions eligible to receive grants under Titles III and V and characteristics of students served; (2) any challenges grantees face, and how they spent Title III and V funds to address these challenges; and (3) the extent to which the Department of Education (Education) monitors the financial and programmatic performance of grantees, and uses this information to target its technical assistance."  Read More…

Striving Toward Excellence: Faculty Diversity in Medical Education
November 2009 – Association of American Medical Colleges
"The Association of American Medical Colleges' (AAMC) report, 'Striving Toward Excellence: Faculty Diversity in Medical Education,' presents an evolutionary paradigm to increase and support faculty diversity that calls on learning institutions "to develop programs not based solely on the current lack of diversity but rather to eradicate inhibitors of institutional excellence."  Read More…

A 21st Century Imperative: Promoting Access and Diversity in Higher Education
October 2009 - American Council on Education and EducationCounsel
"Many 21st-century access and diversity issues face higher education leaders. The 21st-century challenge — and opportunity — facing higher education leaders centers directly on their need to develop effective policies that will advance their core education goals, and to do so in resource efficient ways. To succeed with respect to issues of access and diversity, this means that higher education leaders must do several things well."  Read More…

Access and Diversity Toolkit
October 2009 – American Council on Education and EducationCounsel

Number of Underrepresented Minority Physicians Remains Far Less than Corresponding Proportion of New York's Population
March 22, 2010 – University of Albany Center for Health Workforce Studies
"The number of underrepresented minority (URM) physicians has not increased substantially over the past decade and remains far less than their corresponding proportion in the state's population. The study also found that URM physicians are more likely to practice in a primary care specialty and work in hospitals and clinics, and are also more likely to serve patients covered by Medicaid, and work in areas of the state that are federally designated as primary care shortage areas." 
To read the summary findings, click here.

Modest and Uneven: Physician Efforts to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities
February 2010 – Center for Studying Health System Change
"Despite broad consensus among the medical community about how physicians can help to address and, ultimately, reduce racial and ethnic disparities, physician adoption of several recommended practices to improve care for minority patients ranges from 7 percent reporting they have the capability to track patients' preferred language to 40 percent reporting they have received training in minority health issues to slightly more than half reporting their practices provide some interpreter services. The challenges physicians face in providing quality health care to all of their patients will keep mounting as the U.S. population continues to diversify and the minority population increases."  Read More…

Roadmap to Diversity: Integrating Holistic Review Practices into Medical School Admission Processes
Spring 2010 – Association of American Medical Colleges
"The Roadmap to Diversity: Integrating Holistic Review Practices into Medical School Admission Processes is designed to help admission deans, staff, and committees at medical schools develop and integrate holistic review practices into their student selection processes. This publication provides schools with a flexible, modular framework and accompanying tools for:  aligning admission policies, processes, and criteria with institution-specific mission and goals, and establishing, sustaining, and reaping the benefits of medical student diversity (as defined by the school) in support of those missions and goals."  Read More...