American Board of Internal Medicine Doubles Down on DEI

This week, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), which certifies physicians in the field of internal medicine, sent out an update to its members summarizing the fall meeting of its Infectious Disease Board.

But that update, among other things, also contained a statement doubling down on ABIM’s DEI practices.

“ABIM remains firmly committed to advancing health equity, as reflected in a joint statement by the ABIM Board of Directors and the ABIM Foundation Board of Trustees dated June 2025,” the update reads.

“ABIM continues to work in the areas outlined in the Equity Statement: developing health equity content for assessments, ensuring that assessments are fair, and researching to advance assessment strategies,” the update continues. “ABIM also maintains collaborations with medical specialty societies working to advance health equity. During this session, staff highlighted both the progress achieved and the challenges that remain in ABIM’s ongoing health equity efforts.”

The Health Equity Statement makes clear that ABIM is injecting “health equity” into the certification process: “We include health equity content in our assessments, based on science and evidence related to health disparities.”

It’s unclear exactly what this means: Health equity is a nebulous term, but often refers to practices that seek to equalize health outcomes between racial groups, often through racial discrimination. 

Moreover, the premise for these practices is that racial disparities in health outcomes are explained by systemic racism or some other factor that is best addressed through political/social change. 

Regardless of the exact manner in which ABIM is infusing “health equity” into its assessments, that these topics are included in the certification process is cause for alarm.

But that’s not all.

Indeed, ABIM maintains a webpage dedicated to its commitment to health equity, replete with various DEI resources and evidence of the organization’s DEI activities.

“Like many organizations across the United States, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and ABIM Foundation (ABIMF) are at a turning point, where we move from being ‘passively non-racist’ institutions to committing ourselves to be an ‘actively anti-racist’ influence in health care,” that webpage reads. 

Anti-racism, defined by its most prominent proponent Ibram X. Kendi, refers to a set of practices that explicitly seek to remedy past discrimination through present racial discrimination.

Internally, ABIM appears to be adhering to these principles. For instance, it describes its various committees and councils as aiming “to maintain a composition that reflects the diversity and complexity of the physician and patient populations that certification serves.”

ABIM’s 2020 statement on racial justice also includes a pledge to engage political activism: “we pledge actively to do our part in opposing and dismantling systems and policies that cause harm to our patients and disproportionately affect those in Black and Brown communities.”

And Do No Harm previously reported on ABIM’s “DEI Strategic Plan” (which has since been removed from the ABIM website).

The plan’s goals included: 

• “Develop and implement programs that address the racial and ethnic disparities in health care”; 
• “Influence the education and training of board certified internists to equip them with the skills and awareness to recognize and prevent healthcare disparities and to promote health equity”; and 
• “Intentionally create and foster partnerships to exponentially expand the impact of ABIM’s efforts in addressing systemic racism and disparities in health care, in the healthcare profession, in the provision of health care and the outcomes of that care.”

As an organization that certifies physicians, ABIM’s chief concern should be the competency of medical practitioners.

Instead, it seems that ABIM has decided that “health equity” and other DEI concerns should be its focus.

And, as the recent update demonstrates, ABIM is doubling down.