IOM report asks schools to boost minority recruitment

Some medical leaders said practicing physicians need to be more involved in attracting minorities.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Feb. 23, 2004.

A new Institute of Medicine report said health professions educational institutions should improve their admissions policies and practices to encourage more minorities to enter the medical profession.

Schools, private foundations and government agencies have worked to motivate more minorities to become health care professionals, the report said. But less attention has been focused on reducing institutional and policy-level barriers in training.

The report, released Feb. 5, recommends that educational institutions improve admissions policies to recognize the value of diversity, basing admission on a comprehensive review that includes considering ethnic background and language skills. Groups that accredit educational institutions should be more aggressive in developing standards that result in minorities working in health professions and should monitor the progress of member institutions in reaching that goal, according to the report.

"There is value to having increased diversity in the work force," said Lonnie R. Bristow, MD, chair of the committee that wrote the IOM report. "It's not just doing the right thing. It turns out to be the smart thing."

The recommendations were welcomed by minority leaders.

"You have to have a formal plan to achieve diversity. It just can't be words that say, 'We're for diversity,' " said Randall Maxey, MD, PhD, a Los Angeles nephrologist and president of the National Medical Assn., which represents more than 25,000 black physicians.