Aug 26, 2021 – Efforts to improve diversity and equity in academic medicine have been “sidelined” in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, despite the growing need to address racial inequalities, the association’s top diversity expert told American Medical Colleges.
“It’s the idea of ’Here we go again.’ [Diversity] Problems are being pushed into the background, no longer in the foreground because of the pandemic everyone is focusing on, ”said David Acosta, MD. “Our academic health centers have certainly been affected by guidelines like social distancing. Our CEOs, our CFOs, were not able to work normally. It wasn’t like always. “
Acosta spoke during a webinar organized by Herbert Smitherman Jr., MD, Vice Dean for Diversity and Community Affairs at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Michigan.
Acosta focused on the long-standing lack of diversity in medicine, which, in his opinion, was only compounded by the race count following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. But the simultaneous pandemic has left little scope to address these issues.
Things like long-term interruptions in elective surgeries are costly for academic medical institutions, Acosta said, leading to budget cuts and vacations in diversity and inclusion departments.
At the same time, clinical faculties that had previously advocated these efforts and acted as mentors to medical students and people of color have been dismissed because of the rising number of patients, Acosta said.
“When you’ve talked to the doctors and faculty, they felt overwhelmed. Not just overwhelmed, but exhausted, ”he said. “Not only do doctors and faculties burn out, but also our medical students and assistant doctors.”
But racial differences in medicine are a crisis that also requires attention, Acosta said. There are still holes in the pipeline that keep people of color – black men in particular – from studying medicine. And those entering academic medicine suffer from daily microaggressions, imposter syndrome, lack of contact with mentors of color, and other stressors that complicate an already demanding career, Acosta said.
“We have a critical crisis with black men in medicine,” he said. They disappear from the landscape. There is a growing absence. “
Acosta cited data from the Association of American Medical Colleges – which represents about 400 major teaching hospitals across the country – showing that of the total 52,757 medical school applicants in 2018-2019, only 4,430 were black. Of the black applicants, only 1,558 were men. Of the 21,622 people enrolled since then, only 604 were black men.
He added that not only are there inequalities in the educational system, societal barriers, and stereotypes to overcome, but that once colored people enter medical school, they are expected to adapt to the largely white environment regardless of their cultural background.
Acosta encouraged institutions to reconsider inclusion efforts and prioritize justice, despite the necessary and ongoing focus on the pandemic.
“It really is time to step up that effort,” he said. “It requires investment in many ways, not just financially.”
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David Acosta, MD, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Association of American Medical Colleges.
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