The Association of American Medical
Colleges (AAMC) has focused efforts on “increasing
diversity in the physician workforce in the U.S.”.
A 1970 AAMC policy statement noted that underrepresented
minority groups had encountered “inequitable
barriers” to the medical professions and committed
to correcting the inequities in the process of medical
school admissions. Since that time several programs
were developed in response to this commitment in hopes
of increasing the diversity in the health care field.
The current AAMC definition of “underrepresented
in medicine” (URM) refers to “blacks,
Mexican Americans, Native Americans (American Indians,
Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians), and mainland
Puerto Ricans” (2004, MSAR, p. 73). These groups
were deemed to be underrepresented in the medical
field in proportion to their percentage of the population
in the U.S. The current minority categories are currently
under review by a committee considering factors such
as demographic changes in recent years, revised federal
guidelines regarding collection of racial and ethnicity
data, and concerns about the current legal climate.
PROGRAMS
OFFERED THROUGH AAMC
The AAMC Division of Community and
Minority Programs (DCPM) promotes diversity and equity
by coordinating various programs and services and
by working closely with medical school admissions
personnel.
The Summer
Medical and Dental Educational Program (SMDEP) is a free six-week
(full tuition, housing, and meals) intensive summer
medical and dental school preparatory program for highly motivated
students. Funded by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation,
this program offers intensive personalized medical
school preparation. The program is offered at eleven
medical school sites around the country. The application
for this program goes online in early November each
year.
The Fee
Assistance Program (FAP) helps students whose
limited financial means would prevent them from paying
the cost of the MCAT or AMCAS application fees. For
the MCAT, a FAP approval will reduce the registration
fee from $185 to $80. For AMCAS, a FAP approval will
enable an applicant to apply to up to 10 medical schools
with the application fee waived.
The Medical
Minority Applicant Registry (MED-MAR) is a self-identification
registry that identifies and provides information
about URM status and financially disadvantaged MCAT
examinees. Students are given the opportunity to register
at the time they take the MCAT. The MED-MAR program
then circulates biographical information about the
applicant to the minority affairs and admissions offices
of all U.S. medical schools. Medical schools wishing
to increase their minority applicant pool will use
the information to contact applicants directly. Information
about the criteria for participation and registration
information is available at the website.
A publication entitled Minority
Student Opportunities in United States Medical Schools
(MSOUSMS) is published in even numbered years. This
publication provides information from individual medical
schools about their minority student recruitment,
statistics, and related topics. Information on enrichment
programs offered by medical schools is listed on a
school-by-school basis.
There are also programs available
once a student gains admission to medical school,
such as financial assistance programs and academic
and support programs. A wide variety of information
and hyperlinks of interest are available at the AAMC
Minorities
in Medicine section of the website. These links
include information on minority matriculant data,
publications of interest, and data on medical school
faculty.
