Commentary

Do No Harm Scores Major Victory Against Racial Discrimination in Medicine

  • By Do No Harm Staff
  • November 14, 2024

The Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), a medical organization focused on cell and gene therapies, removed a race requirement from its GROW RegenMed Internship program after Do No Harm filed a charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The program offered students paid summer internship opportunities in the regenerative medicine sector.

Previously, ARM’s internship program was only open to black students.

In July, Do No Harm asked the EEOC to investigate ARM for violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits race discrimination in employment. Now, ARM will open the internship to everyone regardless of race. 

“Do No Harm welcomes this change,” said Do No Harm Executive Director Kristina Rasmussen. “No student should be denied access to a valuable opportunity because of their race. The medical field is best served when organizations reward students based on their talent and acumen, not traits that have no bearing on their success.”

The change is just the latest example of medical institutions ditching racially exclusionary program requirements following Do No Harm complaints. 

For instance, earlier this year, the American Society of Hematology (ASH) rebranded its Minority Recruitment Initiative, a program that awarded scholarships to medical students and residents – but only if they were members of certain “underrepresented” racial groups. The new version of the program, the Hematology Inclusion Pathway (HIP) Initiative, no longer includes language explicitly excluding applicants from certain races. ASH made this change following a series of Do No Harm complaints to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that alleged public universities promoting the scholarship were violating federal civil rights law.

Last month, several medical schools informed the OCR they were either dropping discriminatory eligibility criteria from scholarship programs – or discontinuing the programs altogether – following our civil rights complaints.