Study Finds Little Hope for Significant Improvements in the Racial Diversity of Medical School Faculty

A study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan finds that minorities continue to be severely underrepresented among faculties of U.S. medical schools. And the racial demographics of students in the current pipeline who are training for medical school faculty positions make it unlikely that there will be any improvement in racial diversity among medical school teaching ranks any time soon.

The report found that although underrepresented minorities make up 27 percent of the U.S. population, only 7 percent of practicing physicians and 7.3 percent of medical school faculty are minorities. Blacks are now 6.4 percent of all enrollments in medical school.