Posted: Mar 20, 2019 7:49 AM EDT
Updated: Mar 20, 2019 7:49 AM EDT

 

POR: JAIME NIETO
19 MARZO 2019

---

Read the article online: https://eldiariony.com/2019/03/19/se-necesita-mas-apoyo-para-que-haya-mas-diversidad-en-la-medicina/

By Another Voice

Published March 13, 2019

Jayne O’Donnell and David Robinson, USA TODAY NETWORK, Published 11:11 a.m. ET Feb. 28, 2019 

 

 

These are the 10 black men in University of Cincinnati College of Medicine’s first year class at their “White Coat Ceremony,” (Photo: Colleen Kelley/University of Cincinnati)

 

 

WASHINGTON – Gabriel Felix is on track to graduate from Howard University’s medical school in May.

The 27-year-old from Rockland County, N.Y., has beaten the odds to make it this far, and knows he faces challenges going forward.

He and other black medical school students have grown used to dealing with doctors’ doubts about their abilities, and other slights: being confused with hospital support staff, or being advised to pick a nickname because their actual names would be too difficult to pronounce.

“We’re still on a steady hill toward progress,” says Felix, president of the Student National Medical Association, which represents medical students of color. But “there’s still a lot more work to do.”

After decades of effort to increase the ranks of African-American doctors, blacks remain an underrepresented minority in the nation’s medical schools.

USA TODAY examined medical school enrollment after the wide coverage of the racially controversial photo that appeared in the 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook entry of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. The picture showed one person in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe.

The proportion of medical students who identified as African-American or black rose from 5.6 percent in 1980 to 7.7 percent in 2016, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. That’s a substantial increase but still short of the 13.2 percent in the general population.

The disparity matters, physicians, students and others say, because doctors of color can help the African-American community overcome a historical mistrust of the medical system – a factor in poorer health outcomes for black Americans.

“It’s been a persistent, stubborn racial disparity in the medical workforce,” says Dr. Vanessa Gamble, a professor at George Washington University. “Medical schools have tried, but it also has to do with societal issues about what happens to a lot of kids in our country these days.”

Those who have studied the disparity blame much of it on socioeconomic conditions, themselves the legacy of systemic racism. African Americans lag other Americans in household income and educational opportunity, among other indicators.

Medical schools and professional organizations have tried to boost enrollment and graduation rates by considering applicants’ socioeconomic backgrounds when reviewing grades and test scores, connecting doctors of color with elementary and middle schools and awarding more scholarship money.

They’ve achieved some success: The number of medical students who identified as African-American or black grew from 3,722 in 1980 to 6,758 in 2016, an 82 percent increase.

Individual schools have outperformed their peers.

Eastern Virginia Medical School has increased the enrollment of students of color since then. In 1984, 5 percent of M.D. students identified as black, the only category then available. In the school’s most recent class, 12.4 percent identified as African, African-American, Afro-Caribbean or black.

But further progress toward a more representative student body nationwide remains elusive. That’s due largely to the high cost of medical school – student loans average $160,000 and can take decades to pay off – and the attraction of other professional options available to the strongest minority students that cost less and require fewer years of training.

The benefits of greater enrollment could be considerable: Studies show that having more black doctors would likely improve black health in the United States. Many African-Americans remain mistrustful of the health care system, with some historic justification, and so are less likely than others to seek preventative or other care.

Gamble knows the phenomenon as well as anyone. She chaired a committee that investigated the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the notorious experiment conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service from 1932 to 1972. Researchers withheld treatment from a group of black men with syphilis to study the progress of the disease, jeopardizing their health and that of their sexual partners.

Building pipelines to medical school  

Universities are working to boost minority enrollment and increase the likelihood that students will stay in school and pass the exams required to graduate and get licensed to practice.

Dr. Thomas Madejski is president of the Medical Society of the State of New York.  (Photo: Medical Society of the State of New York)

Dr. Thomas Madejski, president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, says efforts such as the American Medical Association’s Doctors Back to School program, in which physicians of color visit grade schools, help encourage minority students consider careers in medicine.

But he cautions that such programs don’t address all of the socioeconomic hurdles confronting African Americans.

“I think we may have to relook at some of the factors that may still be barriers and create some new initiatives to overcome those and get the citizens of the U.S. to have the physician workforce that they want and need,” Madejski says.

His group and others are pushing for tuition relief and expansion of scholarship programs for underrepresented groups.

Gabriel Felix is a fourth year student at Howard University’s medical school and president of the Student National Medical Association.  (Photo: Courtesy of Gabriel Felix)

Felix, the Howard student, calls for more outreach by physicians of color, particularly in African American communities.

Felix’s parents are from Haiti, where black doctors are a common sight. They could easily envision the career for their son. African-American parents, however, might not encourage their children as much, Felix says.  

Dr. Mia Mallory is associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of Cincinnati medical school.

“Patients do better when they are taken care of by people who look like them,” she says. “So we’re trying to grow talented physicians that look like them and are more likely to go back into the community they came from.”

Dr. Mia Mallory is associate dean in the office of diversity and inclusion and an associate professor in pediatrics at University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. (Photo: University of Cincinnati College of Medicine)

Some of what’s being done:

► New York. About a third of the state’s population is black and/or Latino, but only 12 percent of doctors in practice are. The decision of New York University’s decision to offer free tuition to medical students who maintain a certain grade point average has more than doubled the number of applicants who identify as a member of a group that’s underrepresented in medicine.

Associated Medical Schools of New York, which represents the state’s 16 public and private medical schools, says several programs give college students academic help, mentoring or other aid, and guarantee medical school acceptance upon completion.

About 500 practicing physicians from underrepresented groups graduated from one of these programs at University at Buffalo.

These were “kids who otherwise never would have gotten into medical school,” says Jo Wiederhorn, president of Associated Medical Schools of New York.

The share of black and Latino students at medical school rose from 13.5 percent in the 2010-11 school year to 15.4 percent for the past school year, Wiederhorn said.

► Maryland. University of Maryland, Baltimore County, produces more African-Americans who go on to earn dual M.D./Ph.D. degrees than any college in the country.

Its Meyerhoff Scholars program selects promising high school students for a rigorous undergraduate program that connects them with research opportunities, conferences, paid internships, and study-abroad experiences. The program is open to all people, but nearly 70 percent of the scholars are black.

The university also sends students in its Sherman Scholars program to teach math and science in disadvantaged elementary schools in the Baltimore area. That helps build an early pipeline to the university and its science and math programs.

UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski III says, “We’re going to find some prejudice wherever we go.” But he prefers to look for solutions that keep students of color in math and science, which increases their chances of medical school acceptance.

► University of Cincinnati. The College of Medicine welcomed the largest group of African-American men in its history last year at 10 – an important milestone, given the gender gap within the few black doctors.          

Mallory says the school looks at students’ applications “holistically,” considering “what it took for them to get where they are.” That includes whether they had to work while they were in college and whether they had access to tutors.

The school’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion hired Dr. Swati Pandya, a physician and learning specialist, to teach medical school students how to take standardized tests and improve study habits.

All of the school’s third-year students last year passed the first of their medical licensing exams, achieving the highest average in the school’s and the highest of any medical school in the state.

Why so few?

Dr. Georges Benjamin executive director of the American Public Health Association, cites the criminal justice system’s targeting of young black men and the pull of other professions for others.

“The cream of the crop has a broader portfolio of things they can do,”  Benjamin says. “They can go into other disciplines, including MBA and law programs.”

Dr. Garth Graham is a cardiologist by training, but in a nearly 20-year career, he has become something akin to a doctor of disparities.

A former assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health, he’s Aetna’s vice president of community health and president of the Aetna Foundation.

He also chairs the Harvard Medical School Diversity Fund, which supports science, technology, engineering and math education and other support for minority students and faculty members in kindergarten through grade 12.

The National Bureau of Economic Research studied African-American men’s use of preventive health services when they had black and non-black doctors. The bureau reported last year that black doctors could reduce black men’s deaths from heart disease by 16 deaths per 100,000 every year. That would reduce the gap between black and white men by 19 percent.

Black doctors “bring a cultural understanding because of their background in their communities,” Graham says. “Relatability is important in patient-doctor relationships.”

Contributing: Shari Rudavsky, The Indianapolis Star

---

Read the article online:  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/02/28/medical-school-student-african-american-enrollment-black-doctors-health-disparity/2841925002/

Testimony of:

Jo Wiederhorn, President & CEO Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY) Oversight Hearing – Pursuing a Career in Health Care at the City University of New York  Committee on Higher Education New York City Council January 17, 2019 10:00 am 250 Broadway, 14th Floor Committee Room, New York, NY Good morning, Chairwoman Barron and other distinguished members of the committee. Thank you for this opportunity to testify on pursuing health careers at the City University of New York. My name is Jo Wiederhorn, President & CEO of the Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY), the consortium of the sixteen public and private medical schools in New York State, eight of which are located within New York City’s five boroughs. AMSNY works in partnership with its members to promote high-quality and cost-efficient health care by ensuring that New York State’s medical schools provide outstanding medical education, patient care and biomedical research. AMSNY strongly believes in the importance of a multifaceted strategy to meet the growing demand for primary care and specialty physicians, while simultaneously tackling the current need to decrease access issues in underserved areas. As such, through our Diversity in Medicine Program AMSNY has overseen diversity programs designed to increase the number of underrepresented students going into medicine and biomedical sciences since 1985. CUNY School of Medicine (CUNY), formerly Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, is one of our member institutions and we have been supporting programs at both CUNY and the City College of New York (CCNY) for close to 20 years.

AMSNY’s Diversity in Medicine Program

According to the SUNY Albany Center for Health Workforce Studies, while African American/Blacks and Latino/Hispanics make up 31% of the New York State population, they accounted for approximately 12% of the State’s physician workforce between 2011-2015. Increasing racial and ethnic diversity among health professionals is important because evidence indicates that diversity is associated with improved access to care for racial and ethnic minority patients, greater patient choice and satisfaction as well as better educational experiences for health professions students. As such, increasing the number of physicians from communities underrepresented in medicine (URIM) practicing in the state is vital to the health of New Yorkers. Since 1985, AMSNY has supported an array of pipeline programs across the state with the intent of expanding the pool of students choosing careers in health and medicine. The goal of these programs is to provide academic enrichment and support to students from educationally and/or economically underserved backgrounds. These programs provide an opportunity that a majority of participants would not have had due to cultural and financial barriers. AMSNY oversees six core programs as part of its Diversity in Medicine grant that ultimately leads students into medical school, including a post-baccalaureate program at the Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo (UB); and three master’s degree post-baccalaureate programs at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, and New York Medical College. These programs are unique in that students must first apply to a New York State medical school and be interviewed by the school’s admissions committee. If the admissions committee believes the student would be a good addition to the school, they will recommend him/her to one of the four post-bac programs. If, upon completion of the post-baccalaureate program, the student meets the program and the referring school’s requirements, he/she will automatically be accepted into the referring medical school. As you will see in the attachment, 93% of students that participate in AMSNY’s UB post- baccalaureate program enter medical school, and 85% graduate. In our master’s degree post- baccalaureate programs, 94% of the students enter medical school. The other core programs provide support for an academic learning center at CUNY School of Medicine – a seven-year BS/MD program that students enter directly from high school; and a research program at CCNY that links junior and senior undergraduate students with NIH-funded researchers to prepare them for careers in medical school and/or the basic sciences.

CUNY School of Medicine Academic Learning Center

AMSNY supports the CUNY School of Medicine Learning Resource Center (LRC) which provides academic support to students who enter the seven-year school directly from high school and graduate with a BS/MD degree. Since its inception, the LRC has provided thousands of counseling and workshop hours to CUNY students. The LRC provides educational and academic support services and resources to all of the CUNY School of Medicine students, whether they are in the “undergraduate” (first three years leading to a BS degree) or “graduate” (last 4 years leading to an MD degree) portion of the school. Some of the key services offered through the LRC include: academic counseling and coaching through a pre-matriculation workshop which helps incoming freshmen transition to an accelerated college program, tutoring which is often provided in a peer-to-peer setting, as well as problem-based learning skills seminars, and early academic evaluation and intervention of “at-risk” students through standardized learning assessments. The LRC also provides seminars for the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and mini-boards. Funding through the AMSNY helps the LRC meet the increasing needs and demands for academic and clinical support services from our undergraduate and medical students, especially students whose pre- college education has not sufficiently prepared them for the rigors of an accelerated college program, and subsequent medical curriculum. CUNY School of Medicine is also unique in that the students come from New York State, most are from racial and ethnic backgrounds which are underrepresented in medicine, and the school focuses on preparing students for careers in primary care. AMSNY and the LRC help prepare the next generation of physicians from New York to care for the population of New York City.  

City College of New York Pathways to Careers in Medicine and Research Program

The Pathways to Careers in Medicine and Research Program at CCNY provides stipend support to undergraduate science majors who are conducting research in laboratories within the Division of Science or in outside research facilities. In the past we have also been able to provide a small stipend to their mentors. Students engaged in research must spend a minimum of ten hours per week in the laboratory. Traditionally, most of the students must work in order to pay for their educational expenses at the sacrifice of research experience. The stipend support makes it possible for students to participate in research and still earn money, giving them the option not to work. The mentor support helps to cover research laboratory expenses. The purpose of the Pathways to Careers in Medicine and Research Program is to increase the likelihood that students who express an interest in a career in medicine or research are successful in their pursuit. The research component of the program helps to define their interests and set them apart from other graduate and medical school applicants. The students in the AMSNY/DOH Pathways to Careers in Medicine and Research Program present posters of their projects at scientific and professional conferences where they make connections with graduate and professional schools and programs, government agencies and research institutions. Presenting also assists students with interviewing skills, scientific fluency and strengthens all aspects of their graduate school applications. AMSNY has been following Pathways students as they move on from CCNY and have found that many of the students do pursue careers in the health sciences. From 2008 to 2018, 26 students have gone on to medical school and/or an MD/PhD program, 35 students have sought careers in the biomedical sciences, including PhD and master’s degree programs, working in research labs, as well as teaching, and 10 students have gone on to other health careers such as optometry and as physician assistants. In the 2017-2018 academic year, 13 students participated in the program each semester (At its height, AMSNY supported 30 students and mentors per semester). Of those students, the mean GPA was 3.51 with the students majoring in Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry and English/Pre-Medical. All of the students presented scientific posters at the City College Academy for Professional Preparation (CCAPP) and three students presented at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). One student received a Fulbright Fellowship Award and another student was awarded an American Chemical Society Award. In closing, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify this morning. As you can see, AMSNY has been overseeing two very successful programs at CUNY—both of which are for underrepresented students who are interested in pursuing careers in the health professions. To further support these students and to aid them in their education we would like to expand our scholarship program to students who are in their final four years of CUNY School of Medicine and to increase the stipend for and number of students who participate in our Careers in Medicine and Research Program at CCNY. The expansion of these programs can be designed to include an obligation to work in New York City once the individual has completed his/her education.

(New York, NY) – Wednesday, October 10, 2018 is Stem Cell Awareness Day, and research institutions across New York are joining the Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY) to spread the news that groundbreaking stem cell research is happening across the state. This year also marks 20 years since scientists first discovered how to derive stem cells, leading to a medical revolution.

“Unfortunately at least once in their lives most people are faced with someone close to them who  is battling a disease such as cancer, diabetes, HIV, Alzheimer’s or heart disease. Luckily, scientists are making strides in advancing breakthrough discoveries in pursuit of new treatments—thanks to stem cells,” said Jo Wiederhorn, President of AMSNY. “Many of these incredible advancements have been made by researchers right here in New York, thanks to the New York State Stem Cell Science Program.”

Stem cells open up new avenues for biomedical researchers because of their unique ability to develop into many different types of cells, making it possible to study many disease types, and to repair and replace any damaged body tissue. They allow researchers to model diseases in labs so they can study their progression, develop personalized treatments, and test existing drugs for new uses. And, stem cells can replicate indefinitely, making them abundant.

As part of AMSNY’s efforts to raise awareness, the organization is working with research institutions to promote stem cell research findings via social media using #StemCellAwarenessDay, and releasing a series of short videos that explain stem cell research.

It’s important to note that while stem cells represent the next frontier of medical breakthroughs, federal funding for stem cell science is limited. That’s why New York State created the Stem Cell Science program (NYSTEM) in 2007 to fund stem cell research. It has been tremendously successful, leading to more than $152 million in additional support from other sources, and creating over 750 jobs across the state, in addition to advances in healthcare.

NYSTEM-funded research happening in New York State includes:

• Research to treat age-related macular degeneration (blindness) with adult retinal stem cell transplants.
• Studying schizophrenia using cerebral organoids, in which stem cells are grown into “mini-brains” that resemble the developing human brain in its earliest stages.
• Using stem cell models of brain tumors, colon cancer, and more to screen existing drugs for effectiveness in fighting these illnesses.
• Discovering a new class of stem cells that have properties allowing them to develop into various types of heart cells, to home in on the site of an injury and repair it.
• Exploring novel treatments for devastating inherited diseases affecting a patient’s enzymes, including Krabbe, Gaucher and Tay-Sachs diseases.

Learn more about researchers supported by NYSTEM here.

***

The Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY) is the consortium of the 16 public and private medical schools throughout New York State. AMSNY’s mission is to be the voice of medical education in New York State, advancing biomedical research, diversity in medical school and the physician workforce, and high quality, cost-efficient patient care. The combined economic impact of New York’s medical schools economic is more than $85.6 billion, meaning that $1 in every $13 in New York State’s economy is related to AMSNY medical schools and their primary hospital affiliates. For more information about AMSNY, please visit: www.amsny.org