Minority physicians encourage the next generation

AMA Leader Commentary. By J. Edward Hill, MD. March 3, 2003.

AMA LEADER COMMENTARY

A few words about current events in medical practice

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A message to all physicians from J. Edward Hill, MD, chair of the AMA Board of Trustees.

Let's hear it for our future doctors!" With that inspiring cheer, Maurice Sholas, MD brought his "Doctors Back to School" visit to a resounding close -- and made a lasting impression on the fourth- through eighth-graders who attend St. Josaphat School in Chicago.

Dr. Sholas, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist, is just one of several hundred minority physicians, residents and medical students who have headed "back to school," bringing stethoscopes, surgical hats, reflex hammers and, perhaps most important, the story of their own journeys into medicine.

The common purpose of these physicians is simple -- but powerful. As Lonnie Bristow, MD, past president of the AMA, explained to one group of students: "If I can do it, you can do it. You just have to make up your mind."

That's the message that the AMA's Minority Affairs Consortium wants young people of color across the nation to hear -- and their efforts could not have come at a more critical juncture in our history.

Today, almost a quarter of our country's population is African-American, Hispanic-American or American Indian. Yet only 7% of physicians and 6% of medical school faculty members belong to one of these groups. In 30 years, minority groups will represent almost a third of our population. Unless current trends in minority enrollment are reversed, these groups will continue to be significantly underrepresented within the ranks of our profession.