Though college enrollment among black men has increased in recent decades, members of the group are entering medical schools at a slower pace. Now, the number of black men applying to U.S. medical schools is actually lower than what admissions offices recorded in 1978, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges’ latest report.
Data in the report shows a slight drop in the number of black male applicants between 1978 and 2014, even as other racial groups experienced an uptick. By 2014, only 1,337 black men applied to U.S. medical schools. In that year, 515 black men were enrolled in an institution, slightly less than was the case in the late 1970s.
Enrollment statistics for 2015 do show an 8 percent gain in black male admission into medical school. However, researchers consider such gains modest, barely making up for 35 years of poor admissions and enrollment trends. Solving this problem, they said, would require more mentoring programs, investments in K-12 public schools, an increase of financial aid options, and an agreement among medical schools to put less emphasis on MCATs and other standardized tests.
“The hope is that this report will prompt leaders in academic medicine to redouble their efforts to improve opportunities for minorities, with specific attention to African-American men,” reads the executive summary of the AAMC report. “They could rethink and renew their existing initiatives, including reviewing and updating current admissions policies and practices, thinking creatively about formal and informal efforts to engage black men and their communities, and conducting community outreach.”
Fewer than 20 percent of medical students identify as members of the black or Latino race. In 2012, the highest concentration of black doctors came from historically black institutions Howard School of Medicine and Morehouse School of Medicine. The disparity worsens among certain specialties including pediatrics, family medicine, and gynecology.
Increasing medical school admission and enrollment among black men could be a key in solving persistent public health issues. Graduates from underrepresented racial groups may be more likely to choose to serve their communities, which tend to be places in dire need of medical resources. Patients also respond to medical professionals with whom they share a common culture, race, language, and gender. That affinity provides a great opportunity to bridge a cultural gap and address race-specific skepticism about medicine.
But seeing this reality come to fruition will most likely require addressing key issues. For one, the allure of music and sports — two career fields marketed to black men significantly more than others — overpowers that of the medical field. A lack of financial resources and difficulties black men face when navigating academic environments counts as another impediment in strengthening medical school admission and enrollment numbers.
That’s why medical schools have taken extra steps to boost the black male presence in the industry amid an impending physician shortage that’s predicted to affect the U.S. medical industry by 2025.
For instance, black men eager to learn more about the profession can talk to black male doctors via webcam and other online communications tools, courtesy of Diverse Medicine, Inc., a program that aims to increases ethnic and socioeconomic diversity in the medical field. The AAMC has also jumped in, creating a training program for medical professionals and faculty members at medical schools that addresses implicit bias — attitudes that lead doctors or researchers to unconsciously treat people of color differently. Implicit bias has been found to affect not only the health care system, but also the black male experience at U.S. medical schools.
The #WhiteCoats4BlackLives movement has also spurred discussion about the link between institutional racism and health disparities. After students at 70 medical schools in the United States performed “die-ins” last year, members of the national organization hosted campus town halls. During those gatherings, participants expressed a growing sense of helplessness and reflected on personal experiences with racial discrimination. The events, in conjunction with a social media campaign, have shed light on the hurdles that black students face in completing their medical studies.
“There are some schools with an underrepresented minority patient population that are unable to provide a medical education to qualified students of color,” Walker Keenan, a member of #WhiteCoats4BlackLives, told ThinkProgress earlier this year. “Physicians of color are also more likely to see patients of color who are in need but no one is speaking for those populations. That’s why we have to increase financial aid and residency positions for students of color.”
