The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has in recent months attempted to rebrand its initiatives to scrub mentions of DEI and racially discriminatory policies, removing statements and program descriptions that include references to these practices.
But, as Do No Harm previously revealed, these efforts have largely been cosmetic.
And, as multiple sessions at the AAMC’s November Learn, Serve, Lead annual meeting further demonstrate, the organization has yet to distance itself from DEI in any substantive capacity.
For instance, several sessions discussed ways in which the medical education field could promote tenets of DEI, such as through ideological trainings as well as initiatives to increase diversity in medical education.
Perhaps most explicit of these was the AAMC’s session on holistic review, which refers to admissions practices that emphasize factors unrelated to objective metrics of academic achievement.
The AAMC has outright admitted that the practice of considering these non-merit-based factors in admissions is a means of achieving greater racial diversity among medical students.
The session included an anecdote discussing UConn Health’s efforts to “recruit residents for its health equity track” using a tool called Thalamus Cortex, which is designed to facilitate the holistic review process.
“Programs can selectively blind application data to reduce conscious and unconscious bias while promoting a diverse screening process, taking applicants’ entire profiles and accomplishments into account,” the tool’s website states.
Another session, called “Centering Narratives and Framing Opportunity: How Black Men Charted Their Pathways in Medicine,” discussed efforts to boost the number black male physicians in the medical field, such as the AAMC’s Action Collaborative for Black Men in Medicine.
The details on how these efforts would or will work in practice are scarce, but the session description made clear that such efforts would include “financial support for medical school applications, individualized advising, mentorship networks, and fostering inclusive environment.”
“Attendees were encouraged to engage with the Action Collaborative initiatives and contribute to ongoing efforts to create equitable pathways for Black men in medicine,” the session description stated.
The “Promising Practices for Leadership in a Changing Landscape” session included a discussion “about navigating Texas laws restricting diversity, equity, and inclusion work while previously participating in the AAMC’s HEDIC program.”
The session refers to the now-paused Health Executive Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Certificate (HEDIC) program that was explicitly aimed at “organizing and implementing equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives and strategies within healthcare institutions and communities.”
Other examples included sessions dedicated to: recognizing “leaders advancing equity in medicine”; an AI tool designed to “flag potential bias” in medical education evaluations; and diversity initiatives in graduate and continuing medical education.
Beyond DEI, the sessions also included discussion of political topics such as support for increasing immigration and climate change.
Indeed, one session, titled, “How U.S. Medical Schools are Integrating Climate Change in their Medical Student Curricula,” urged medical education to play a “critical role” in addressing climate change. This apparently includes “the role of student advocacy in driving curricular change, the importance of culturally sensitive planetary health diet counseling, and the role of medical legal partnerships in enhancing adaptive capacity.”
If this seems like an attempt to twist the mission of medical education toward outright political advocacy, that’s because it is.
In short, if the AAMC’s annual meeting is any reflection of the organization’s institutional priorities, it’s clear that DEI still has a substantial foothold.
The AAMC must publicly reject divisive, discriminatory ideology and remove the pervasive influence of radical identity politics if it wishes to live up to its mission to promote the best possible medical education.
