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Hold Florida Medical Schools Accountable for Abandoning Wokeness

At least six Florida medical schools say they don’t and won’t compel anyone to accept Critical Race Theory. That’s the news out of the Sunshine State on Thursday, when 28 universities, six of which have medical schools, publicly made this promise. It’s a good sign, but it demands further investigation. Florida medical schools are doing a lot more with this divisive and discriminatory ideology, and every trace of it needs to be eliminated for the sake of physicians and patients.

This turn of events follows Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent request that all publicly funded Florida colleges and universities disclose their spending on Critical Race Theory and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. As Do No Harm chair Dr. Stanley Goldfarb recently wrote in the Orlando Sentinel, medical schools are particularly bad offenders:

“My organization has spent the past year investigating whether and to what extent medical excellence has been replaced by political indoctrination at these institutions. What we’ve found casts doubt on the quality of education that medical schools provide to the future physicians who will treat Floridians.”

The list of offenders includes the University of Florida School of Medicine, the Florida Atlantic University Schmidt College of Medicine, and many others. Florida medical schools are injecting divisive ideology into the application process, the classroom, and faculty training.

Does the new public promise mean medical schools will abandon these deeply concerning actions? It remains to be seen, but it seems unlikely. The schools are saying they won’t force anyone to hold specific views, but that leaves plenty of room to continue beating the woke drum in other ways. Medical schools may not technically force faculty and students to be woke, but they will surely try to indoctrinate them through other means. Gov. DeSantis is right to focus on wokeness in Florida higher education. Hopefully he and state lawmakers will continue to hold colleges and universities, especially medical schools, accountable. Divisive and discriminatory ideas have no place in higher education – and any institution that dabbles in dangerous ideology deserves the highest scrutiny.

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Breaking: UNC Won’t Force Faculty To Be Woke

Big news: The University of North Carolina will no longer force applicants, students, and faculty to prove their commitment to divisive and discriminatory ideology.

This important reversal applies to the UNC School of Medicine, which currently demands that potential students and current and future educators demonstrate their wokeness. These litmus tests lower the quality of medical education, and ending them protects faculty, students, and patients alike.

Do No Harm has previously drawn attention to the UNC School of Medicine’s dangerous policy, which essentially compels so-called “DEI Statements.”

  • On its student application, the UNC School of Medicine includes the following prompt: “We believe that education and professional development are enhanced in educational settings that include individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences… describe how your background and/or experiences would contribute to the UNC SOM community.” Translation: Prove you will advance the woke agenda in order to get admitted.
  • For faculty, the “Required Common Criteria for Appointment, Reappointment, and Promotion for Variable, Fixed-Term, and Tenure-Track” document demands that academics demonstrate their “positive contribution to DEI efforts” on campus, including in their teaching plans and the trainings they’ve taken. Translation: Prove you put woke ideology ahead of medical education.

Do No Harm chairman Dr. Stan Goldfarb previously wrote a letter the School of Medicine’s dean, as well as North Carolina’s governor and senior legislative leaders. He stated:

“It is inappropriate to require that candidates for promotion and tenure demonstrate their commitment to a political ideology… Forcing candidates to declare their support for DEI when many undoubtedly oppose it would compel dishonesty. Moreover, forcing candidates to show a track record of involvement in DEI would compel participation in political activities. All of this is deeply illiberal and violates the basic tenets of academic freedom.”

Fortunately, the UNC School of Medicine can no longer engage in such dangerous and agenda-driven activities. It still promotes divisive and discriminatory woke ideas in plenty of other ways, yet the end of DEI Statements is still a huge step in the right direction. Let’s hope it’s just the first of many.

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DEI Runs Deep at the University of New Hampshire College of Health and Human Services

How deep does wokeness run at the University of New Hampshire College of Health and Human Services (UNHCHHS)? Do No Harm found out – and the results should raise concern in the minds of New Hampshire taxpayers.

UNHCHHS offers numerous degree programs in several health sciences at its Durham, NH campus, including social work. In response to a public information request, Do No Harm received two course syllabi from the Department of Social Work: Race Equity in Health and Human Services (SW630) and Implications of Race, Culture, and Oppression for Social Work Practice (SW840).

Because learners will “examine their own experiences of both privilege and oppression,” the Race Equity in Health and Human Services course material provides them with a trigger warning before listing the course objectives.

Figure 1. From the Race Equity in Health and Human Services syllabus.

While students are being prepared to understand how racism and oppression has an impact on their personal and professional lives, Race Equity in Health and Human Services assists them in the development of “anti-racist strategies.”

Figure 2. From the Race Equity in Health and Human Services syllabus.

Implications of Race, Culture, and Oppression for Social Work Practices is described as a “foundation course” to increase awareness of multi-factorial “aspects of oppression directed at Black, Indigenous, and persons of color (BIPOC).” Future social workers examine the theoretic concepts surrounding “issues of oppression and social justice” and the “dynamics of race, culture, and oppression in U.S. society.” To make this point early in the course, students are assigned a text on “white privilege,” a video by anti-racism proponent Kate Slater, and the “Matrix of Oppression” in week 2.

Figure 3. Implications of Race, Culture, and Oppression for Social Work Practices, Week 2.

The College of Health and Human Services shows its support for these ideologies through its sponsorship of the Committee on Ethnic, Racial, and Gender Equity (CERGE) within the Department of Social Work. With its own Anti-racism Statement, CERGE affirms that it places DEI at the center of its mission.

Figure 4. Committee on Ethnic, Racial, and Gender Equity (CERGE) anti-racism statement.

To ensure all parties are speaking the same language, CERGE provides the “AIDE Glossary” to define terms such as anti-racism, social justice, and Critical Race Theory.

Figure 5. From the Committee on Ethnic, Racial, and Gender Equity (CERGE) AIDE Glossary.

Finally, the CHHS urges students, faculty, and staff to sign the Wildcat Pledge to UNITE Against Racism. Signers vow to “do the work” to educate themselves on their biases, “have the conversation,” strive to be more inclusive in their education, and thank those who correct their mistakes so they can “do better.”

Figure 6. Wildcat Pledge to UNITE Against Racism.

New Hampshire residents and policymakers need to hold the UNH College of Health and Human Services accountable for the divisive philosophies it is indoctrinating its students into at the expense of state taxpayers.

Is your school subscribing to woke ideologies that promote divisive attitudes? Do No Harm wants to hear from you via our secure platform.

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UCSF Shows Where Every Med School Is Heading

Kudos to the University of California San Francisco: It just showed America where every medical school is headed. We obtained a copy of its 2022 report of its Task Force on Equity and Anti-Racism in Research. The report makes clear that radical activists want a wholesale takeover of medical education.

Figure 1. UCSF Task Force on Equity & Anti-Racism in Research Final Report, 2022.

UCSF is completely dedicated to medical and health sciences, yet since 2020, this task force has been devising plans to reorient the school’s mission. It’s specifically focused on research, which is a core component of UCSF’s work and affects everything from faculty hiring to teaching to grant funding.

Figure 2. UCSF Task Force on Equity & Anti-Racism in Research: Foreword.

The task force makes clear that UCSF is insufficiently woke, stating that it’s “abundantly clear that we have yet to create an approach to science that has diversity as foundational.” It further states that “Racism and inequity are embedded in this country and its healthcare and health research systems,” requiring a complete overhaul in the university’s research enterprise.

Figure 3. UCSF Task Force on Equity & Anti-Racism in Research: Foreword.

What, specifically, is the Task Force pushing UCSF to do? There are four things, each of which represents a departure from sound research and medical education.

  • First, “establish a system of accountability on anti-racism and equity for the UCSF research enterprise.” This means creating a permanent woke bureaucracy that pushes UCSF faculty and staff to prioritize ideologically driven research.
  • Second, “promote and support UCSF anti-racism scholarship.” This means evaluating and funding all clinical research through the lens of divisive and discriminatory ideology. The more extreme ideas will be more likely to proceed.
  • Third, “create and support a more diverse UCSF research workforce.” This means hiring faculty and staff based on skin color instead of just expertise, which will lead to lower quality research.
  • Fourth, “promote and support community engaged research.” This means prioritizing research and partnerships with ideological allies, instead of emphasizing the best possible research.
Figure 4. UCSF Task Force on Equity & Anti-Racism in Research: Introduction.

UCSF is all but certain to accept these demands. Together, they represent the replacement of hard science and research with a political agenda. Research funding should be based on presenting high quality proposals initiated by researchers, not activists. Anything less will undermine the integrity and quality of research upon which patients depend.

Figure 5. UCSF Task Force on Equity & Anti-Racism in Medicine, page 31.

One final line from the task force report caught our eye:

“IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT WHILE MANY OF THE COMMENTS RECEIVED WERE CONSTRUCTIVE AND HELPFUL, TASK FORCE MEMBERS WERE TRAUMATIZED BY A STRIKING NUMBER OF COMMENTS THAT DENIED THE EXISTENCE OF INEQUITIES AND RACISM, AND OTHERS THAT MINIMIZED THE BURDEN THAT RACISM HAS IMPOSED.”

Translation: UCSF won’t tolerate any dissent, disagreement, or even discussion. It will only force divisive and even discriminatory ideas on faculty and staff alike.

Figure 6. Comments on recommendations by the UCSF Task Force.

This is the direction every medical school is headed: Coercion, censorship, and groupthink about identity politics, replacing cutting-edge medical research. Patients should be worried – and policymakers should be stepping up to stop this madness before it’s too late.

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Statement About Harvard’s Ranking Decision

The U.S. News and World Report magazine’s ranking system for medical schools has long presented a problem for prestigious institutions like Harvard and Penn, where I used to teach. These medical schools desperately want to admit more students based on race, which they’ve done by lowering standards and admitting some students who didn’t take the MCAT. They want to admit more, but the U.S. News Rankings won’t let them without rightly penalizing their ranking. Now Harvard medical school can admit whoever it wants, on whatever standards it wants, and it can still claim to be #1. Harvard just cancelled ranking systems.

We should see this move for what it is: The denial of merit in the name of diversity. There was a time when admission to Harvard medical school meant you had superior academic achievement. That is no longer true, and Harvard should be ashamed for emphasizing skin color over academic and medical excellence.

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Missouri Bill Targets Woke Medical Schools

Will Missouri be the first state to stop the woke takeover of medical schools? Yes, if State Rep. Ben Baker’s new bill passes. It’s called the “Do No Harm” Act – and it’s a model piece of legislation for any state lawmaker who wants to ensure their medical schools teach medicine, not divisive and discriminatory ideology.

Rep. Baker wrote this week about what his bill does, and why it’s needed:

The decline of our state’s medical schools was made clear by a recent expose on the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. A lecturer was caught declaring that students shouldn’t debate her on matters of “systemic oppression” and Critical Race Theory, which is a divisive ideology that sees racism basically everywhere and in everyone. The lecturer warned that if students dared contradict her, she would “shut that [expletive] down real fast.”

This incident is far from unique. The medical schools at Washington University and the University of Missouri are spending more and more time – and more and more taxpayer dollars – on “diversity, equity, and inclusion” as well as so-called “anti-racism.” These divisive concepts are used to justify outright racial discrimination, supposedly in pursuit of righting past wrongs. The leading proponent of anti-racism has explicitly stated that “future discrimination” is in fact necessary and praiseworthy.

Such woke ideas have no place in medical school, much less the rest of health care or anywhere else. That’s where Rep. Baker’s “Do No Harm” Act comes in:

My bill would stop the decline and corruption of our medical schools. To start, it would require every taxpayer-funded Missouri medical school to get the legislature’s approval before lowering standards for admission. This policy is common sense: Medical schools should look for the best qualified students, because they will provide the best care as physicians.

My bill would also stop taxpayer-funded medical schools from forcing applicants, students, and faculty to hold political views on matters like Critical Race Theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion. The schools would also have to publish their course materials in a public database, so taxpayers can learn exactly what medical students are being taught.

And beyond education, my bill would prevent state medical boards from forcing physicians and nurses to take woke training to receive or keep their license. Medical professionals should focus on treating individual patients, not identity politics.

Rep. Baker concludes by saying, “These protections need to be put in state law as soon as possible.”

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The University of Florida College of Medicine Continues to Exhibit Its Woke Initiatives

The University of Florida College of Medicine is taking its wokeness to a new level, as it just confirmed to Do No Harm. We recently reported on UFCOM’s dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and commitment to infusing anti-racism into the medical education curriculum. However, UFCOM has more virtue signaling to do, as seen with its responses to the AAMC’s Diversity, Inclusion, Culture, and Equity (DICE) Inventory.

Here’s the background. In October 2022, the Association of American Medical Colleges released a report showing that the vast majority of medical schools have embraced identity politics, despite their divisive and even discriminatory nature. The report was based on surveys of specific medical schools, which the AAMC didn’t name.

For the sake of transparency and accountability, Do No Harm submitted freedom of information requests to public medical schools nationwide, including the University of Florida College of Medicine (UFCOM) and UFCOM-Jacksonville (UFCOM-JAX) campuses. We asked for a copy of the system’s survey responses, so that Florida taxpayers and policymakers could learn the truth about this institution.

Here’s what the UFCOM system has self-reported:

  • It has adopted racially discriminatory admissions practices under the guise of “affirmative action.” UFCOM uses the “holistic” admission principles the AAMC endorses. UFCOM-JAX says that it will apply the same admission policy as that campus “becomes a regional medical school.” This means it’s potentially lowering standards in the name of diversity, thereby threatening patient health.  
Figure 1. UFCOM-Jacksonville Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Access (IDEA) office home page.
Figure 2. IDEA infographic (submitted with the UFCOM-JAX DICE Inventory).
  • UFCOM-JAX lobbies for woke policies at the federal, state, and/or local levels. This means it’s wading into toxic public debates instead of fully focusing on educating future physicians. UFCOM claims it does not engage in advocacy for DEI initiatives with policymakers.
  • Its administrators are active within local, regional, and national forums to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion. Both campuses are wasting resources that would be better spent on real medical education.  
Figure 3. UFCOM DICE Inventory score.

All told, the University of Florida College of Medicine has instituted 70.5% of the divisive and discriminatory woke policies listed by the AAMC, and UFCOM-Jacksonville scored 74.1%. By scoring in the yellow zone, you can bet it is feeling pressure from activists and outside groups to go even further down the radical rabbit hole – doing even more damage to faculty, medical students, and ultimately, the millions of patients they’ll see.

Figure 4. UFCOM-JAX DICE Inventory score.

Figure 4. UFCOM-JAX DICE Inventory score.

Florida taxpayers help fund the University of Florida College of Medicine campuses. They, and the policymakers who represent them, should ask why they’re giving so much money to an institution that’s putting divisive and discriminatory ideology at the heart of medical education. More importantly, they should ensure UFCOM and UFCOM-JAX discontinues these policies and initiatives.

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East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine DICE Inventory Score: 70.6%

Just how woke is North Carolina’s ECU Brody School of Medicine? Their score on the AAMC’s Diversity, Inclusion, Culture, and Equity (DICE) Inventory speaks for itself.

Here’s the background. In October 2022, the Association of American Medical Colleges released a report showing that the vast majority of medical schools have embraced identity politics, despite their divisive and even discriminatory nature. The report was based on surveys of specific medical schools, which the AAMC didn’t name.

For the sake of transparency and accountability, Do No Harm submitted freedom of information requests to public medical schools nationwide, including East Carolina University. We asked for a copy of its survey response, so that North Carolina taxpayers and policymakers could learn the truth about this institution.

Here’s what the ECU Brody School of Medicine has self-reported:

  • It has adopted racially discriminatory admissions practices under the guise of “affirmative action.” This means it’s potentially lowering standards in the name of diversity, thereby threatening patient health.  
  • It has a “dedicated office, staff, or resources” dedicated to DEI. In fact, it reports two such offices: The Office of Diversity Affairs and Office of Faculty Affairs and Leadership Development. This means there’s a permanent woke bureaucracy pushing ideology on faculty and students. 
  • It lobbies for woke policies at the federal, state, and/or local levels. This means it’s wading into toxic public debates instead of fully focusing on educating future physicians. 
  • It offers tenure and promotion to faculty who prove their commitment to extreme identity politics and woke priorities. This is a litmus test that requires faculty to toe the party line instead of teaching medicine at the highest level. ECU reported that new promotion and tenure policies are under development.
  • Its administrators are active within local, regional, and national forums to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion. This means it’s wasting resources that would be better spent on real medical education.  

In response to question 83 on the DICE Inventory (Does the institution/school provide scholarships for students from diverse backgrounds?), ECU responded “no” and added the comment “Prohibited for targeting diverse candidates over others.” However, the Office of Diversity Affairs clearly promotes Scholarships for Underrepresented Minorities in Medicine (URMM) Students.

East Carolina University Scholarships for Underrepresented Minorities in Medicine page.

All told, ECU Brody School of Medicine has instituted 70.6% of the divisive and discriminatory woke policies listed by the AAMC. With a score in AAMC’s yellow zone, you can bet it is feeling pressure from activists and outside groups to go even further down the radical rabbit hole – doing even more damage to faculty, medical students, and ultimately, the millions of patients they’ll see.

ECU Brody School of Medicine DICE Inventory score.

North Carolina taxpayers help fund East Carolina University. They, and the policymakers who represent them, should ask why they’re giving so much money to an institution that’s putting divisive and discriminatory ideology at the heart of medical education. More importantly, they should ensure the ECU Brody School of Medicine stops, and soon.

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UPenn School of Medicine Responds to Federal Civil Rights Complaint By Scrubbing Its Website

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In August 2022, we reported that a federal civil rights complaint was filed against the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine for its discriminatory Visiting Clerkship for Underrepresented Minority Students in Medicine (URiM) Program. The eligibility criteria for the program stated that applicants must be “Black/African-American, Hispanic/Latino, or Native American (American Indian, Native Hawaiian, Alaskan Native, mainland Puerto Rican).” This is a very specific and definite race-based requirement that illegally excluded applicants who were white, Asian, and Middle Eastern in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin.

Figure 1. UPenn Perelman School of Medicine Visiting Clerkship for URiM Students Program on August 25, 2022 (archived site).

After receiving a courtesy copy of the complaint filed with OCR last August, the UPenn School of Medicine quickly scrubbed the race-based requirement above and added this new text at the revised website:

 Applicants for the funded clerkship must come from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine. Under-represented in Medicine (URM) refers to individuals from a background that is traditionally underrepresented in medicine, including but not limited to racial and ethnic populations that are underrepresented in the medical profession relative to their numbers in the general population and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, identify as LGBTQ+, have disabilities, are first generation in the United States or first in their immediate family to attend college, or who otherwise would increase the diversity and inclusivity of our student and resident/fellow populations.

Figure 2. UPenn Perelman School of Medicine Visiting Clerkship for URiM Students Program on January 12, 2023.

The revision also included this statement:

Penn Medicine is an equal opportunity employer and adheres to a policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of ancestry, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected class.

As a result of the changes made by Penn Medicine to quickly correct its Title VI violation following being notified of our complaint, the Region III U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, located in Philadelphia, dismissed the complaint.

Do No Harm senior fellow Mark Perry, who filed the original complaint, said:

At the time I filed my complaint the University was in violation of Title VI and in fact the changes the University made to its website since August 2022 confirm that (a) the University was engaged in illegal race-based discrimination in violation of Title VI as recently as August 2022 when I filed my complaint and (b) the changes made by the University is an admission and acknowledgment of guilt by the University that it had been engaged in illegal race-based discrimination in violation of Title VI as of August 2022.

We acknowledge the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine’s update of the eligibility criteria of the Visiting Clerkship for URiM Students in Medicine program after being notified of our federal civil rights complaint. 

If you are aware of a discriminatory scholarship or policy at your medical or nursing school, or if you didn’t apply because you thought a discriminatory policy worked against you, please let us know.

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A Response To JAMA’s Defense of Racial Discrimination

The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published an outright defense of racially discriminatory admissions practices at medical schools, under the guise of “affirmative action.” Our chairman, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, wrote the following response to this disturbing article.

My former colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine have written a defense of race-based medical school admissions that fails on many levels. (Hamilton RH, Rose S, DeLisser HM. Defending Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Undergraduate and Medical School Admission Policies. JAMA. 2023 Jan 10;329(2):119-120. doi: 10.1001/jama.2022.23124. PMID: 36477254.) They argue that racial diversity of a medical school class leads to more students entering primary care training positions and more working in medically underserved areas. They also point out that studies show that minority patients are more likely to have “positive experiences with race concordant physicians,” meaning physicians who share the patient’s skin color. These claims are not supported by the evidence.

In a study of career choices of medical students cited by the authors, 55% of black medical students chose primary care fields (Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, and Family Medicine) for residency compared to 43% of white students. Of those, 57% of black students did not initially opt for further training in a medical specialty, but we know that many such residents work in a primary care position for a short time and pursue specialty training later. Some 47% of white students remained in a primary care specialty over the same period. That means, at most, that 31% of black graduates enter into primary care positions. Currently, 7.7% of medical students in the US are black. Under the scenario of equal representation compared to population, 13% of students would be black. Thus, if the cohort of black students was raised to 13% of all medical students, a nearly 100% increase, the percentage of black students entering the primary care fields would at most increase from 2% of the graduating medical students cohort to 4%. Given that some 22,000 students graduate from medical school each year, this would increase the number of black primary care physicians to approximately 800 per year.

Despite efforts to recruit more black students into medical school, the number has only reached 7.7% of all medical students even in the face of a commitment to increase qualified applicants to medical school. Thus, by the data cited above, currently only 400 black students initially enter primary care fields. On the other hand, currently, some 3,700 white and Asian medical students enter primary care fields each year without initially opting for specialty training. If this number were raised by only 9%, for example through incentive programs like student debt forgiveness, the same 400 person increase in the primary care cohort could be achieved without compromising the academic standards for admitting students to medical school now envisioned by advocates of race-based admissions.

Does this trade-off help black patients? Hamilton et al point to studies showing black doctors tend to choose to practice in “medically underserved areas (MUA’s)”. This is true, but do the authors realize that West Philadelphia where the august University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and its over 2000 physicians practice is a “medically underserved area” according to the US government? This is because the population characteristics including areas of poverty and high prevalence of elderly citizens count as much as any health care availability to the MUA designation. Therefore, we really have no idea about the practice characteristics of the cohort of black doctors who focus on serving black patients since the designation “medically underserved area” is more a political concept than related to health care availability. Moreover, studies from California show that the vast majority of physicians currently practicing in “medically underserved areas” are white.

The next question the authors address is whether black patients have better medical outcomes if cared for by black physicians – a phenomenon known as “race concordance.” Do No Harm has proven there is no valid evidence that clinical outcomes will improve if black patients have black doctors. In fact, the largest study of the question shows that not to be the case.

The authors nonetheless argue that black patients feel more “comfortable” with black doctors, but do we really want a country where skin color affects physician choice? For instance, would it be acceptable if white patients demanded white doctors? The criterion for entry into a field in which lives are at stake should only be based on the potential for providing the highest level of care. That capacity is independent of skin color.

Gaining entry into medical school is a privilege and not a right. If we begin to redress years of lack of opportunity with years of unearned benefits, we will have a health care system that may be more colorful yet may not fulfill its true mission of providing the American people with the best trained and most capable health care workforce. The job of medical education’s leaders is not to make sure that anyone who wants to be a doctor gets to achieve that goal. Rather, they should put patient well-being as the central output of medical education. If 25% or 50% of the medical students in the US were black or from some other minority group and were the most qualified individuals, that would be a successful physician workforce. It is not a function of skin color.

Contorting the admission process to medical school to improve health outcomes for black patients is a social experiment, not an evidence-based approach to reducing health care disparities. Why not work to improve access to our health care system through providing more community entry points rather than a wholesale re-engineering of the health care system? A successful outcome of the pending Supreme Court case in which Asian American students are seeking to end affirmative action at Harvard and the University of North Carolina could be the restoration of merit as the determining factor for entry into medical school. Patients deserve nothing less.

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Complaint Against Washington University in St. Louis Prompts a New Type of Referral from the Office for Civil Rights

In response to a federal civil rights complaint filed against Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) for the School of Medicine’s discriminatory Faculty Diversity Scholars Program, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has referred the case to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – a first for Do No Harm’s OCR filings. Citing “government-wide regulations,” OCR sent the case to the St. Louis EEOC district office for investigation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination on the bases of race, color, national origin, sex, and religion.

Faculty Diversity Scholars Program at WUSTL School of Medicine.

In WUSTL’s own words, the goal of the program is “to provide incentives to departments and programs that hire and retain faculty” from racial and ethnic populations that have been defined as “underrepresented in medicine” or “underrepresented in research.”

Considering the clear illegality of advertising faculty positions that are restricted to only four racial groups, what is the WUSTL School of Medicine thinking? Do No Harm senior fellow Mark Perry, who filed the complaint last July, says he has only seen this conduct in medical education. “Medical schools are so blinded by their obsession with diversity initiatives,” he said, “that they are inexcusably unaware of or unconcerned with their legal obligation to enforce Title VI and Title VII’s prohibitions of discrimination.”

Do No Harm is currently cooperating with the EEOC’s St. Louis District Office as it oversees the inquiry.

If you are aware of discriminatory faculty recruitment, hiring, and retention practices at your school, Do No Harm wants to hear from you via our secure portal.

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The University of Utah Medical School’s Woke Approach: Fake It Till You Make It

We just discovered that America’s main medical school accreditation organization is forcing medical schools to adopt racial quotas. We unearthed this fact after the University of Utah School of Medicine responded to our FOIA request. Yet what’s also interesting is Utah’s response to race-based demands made by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education.

To put it bluntly, Utah’s premier medical school is doing bureaucratic busywork to make itself seem more woke.

Figure 1. UUSOM “pre-medical conference” by The Latino Medical Student Association.

We found that the LCME criticized the Utah School of Medicine for not having enough minorities or women in its faculty and administrative staff, as well as its student body. The LCME also required the school to provide an update on the remedial actions it subsequently took to right this supposed wrong. Here is Utah’s response:

  • It created an “Indigenous STEM Youth Outreach Program.”
  • It established a “Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead Pre-Health Conference,” with the purpose of preparing “Underrepresented/Underserved pre-med students interested in a career in medicine or health on their journey.”
  • It created a “Medical Admissions Preparatory Program (MAPP),” an 8-week summer program designed to assist premedical students from underrepresented backgrounds to strengthen their medical school application.
  • It offered scholarship funding to support underrepresented populations.
Figure 2. UUSOM Medical Admissions Preparatory Program (MAPP).

These programs should be seen for what they are: An attempt by administrators to prove their woke street cred by pushing around paperwork. What’s more, they represent a waste of Utahn’s taxpayer money, and a weakening emphasis on medical education – at a medical school.

Figure 3. Excerpt from LCME follow-up letter dated June 30, 2022.

Bizarrely, the LCME seems okay with these activities. Its response to Utah states that the school addressed its concerns in several areas. Now Utah, taxpayers, policymakers, and patients should be the ones who are concerned. Why is the University of Utah School of Medicine wasting its time on woke bureaucracy?

Have you seen the woke bureaucracy at your medical school? Please let us know – securely and anonymously.

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Is The LCME Forcing Racial Quotas On Medical Schools?

Editor’s note: The LCME submitted statements to Congress addressing this issue. Our response to those statements is here.

America’s main medical school accreditation organization is forcing schools to adopt racial quotas.

That’s what we just discovered after getting FOIA responses from the University of Utah School of Medicine. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which accredits every U.S. medical school, criticized Utah for not being diverse enough – and then forced the school to take remedial action. The LCME, which is sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association, is completely out of line.

Our FOIA request found a trove of documents highlighting this issue. To start, we obtained part of the LCME’s accreditation report for the Utah School of Medicine. It made clear that the school was not complying with the LCME’s diversity standards:

“[D]ata show that 38.5% of full-time faculty and 22.2% of senior administrative staff are women. No offers for faculty and senior administrative staff positions were made in several of the school’s diversity categories (American Indian/Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander) for the 2018-19 academic year.”

Figure 1. LCME letter to UUSOM re: accreditation survey results.

The LCME also criticized Utah for not having sufficient “diversity/pipeline programs and partnerships,” a reference to the lack of diversity in its student body.

In other words, the LCME expects Utah – and every medical school – to offer jobs to candidates based on skin color and gender. When they fail to do so to a sufficient degree, the LCME pushes medical schools to do its bidding. Sure enough, the LCME told Utah exactly what to do:

“To compensate for unsatisfactory diversity: Provide an update on the activities of the Office of Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion since appointment of the new associate dean in AY 2019-20 and of the new assistant dean in 2020. In the update delineate any changes in programs and/or any new programmatic initiatives related to student, faculty, and senior administrative staff recruitment and retention for each of the school’s identified diversity groups.”

Figure 2. LCME survey results excerpt from March 8, 2021.

We’ll explore the school’s reaction in a subsequent blog. The bigger issue is this: The organization that accredits medical schools is responsible for putting ideology ahead of education at those some schools. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education should be investigated by state and federal policymakers – now.

Has your medical school been forced to go woke by an outside organization? Please let us know – securely and anonymously.

Map,Of,Missouri

Missouri Takes On Medical Schools – And Medical Elites Hate It

Missouri is moving to get divisive and discriminatory race-based ideology out of medical schools – and the medical establishment is throwing a fit. Look no further than a recent email Do No Harm obtained, which is from a listserv maintained by the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors (AFMRD).

The email is in response to Rep. Ben Baker’s new bill that seeks to stop medical schools from forcing “Critical Race Theory” and “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” on students and faculty. The bill is a response to the rise of such dangerous ideas at the medical schools associated with Washington University and the University of Missouri, where indoctrination is increasingly common. The bill has been introduced in the Missouri House and Senate, with passage possibly coming later this year.

Cue the outrage from the medical establishment. A subscribing member of the listserv sent out an email to other AFMRD members nationwide attacking the bill and explicitly seeking to stop it. The email asks “if any other states have tried this, or have experience quashing similar proposals.”

Translation: Radicalized medical associations don’t want policymakers or taxpayers keeping medical schools focused on medicine – because they’d rather keep pushing their extreme ideas.

Email to AFMRD members, January 10, 2023.

The email lists all the Missouri bill’s provisions, all of which are common sense and would hold medical schools to higher standards – protecting future physicians and patients alike.

The sender then makes an extraordinary statement: “Not requiring learners to study or subscribe to DEI is in direct conflict with the organizations we are responsible to as program directors.” The meaning is clear: The medical establishment thinks radical indoctrination is now a crucial part of its job.

This backlash shows the urgent need for Missouri’s bill – and the same leadership is needed in other states. Here’s hoping Missouri lawmakers pass this legislation as soon as possible, for the sake of the state’s medical schools and patients.

Is your medical professional association forcing woke ideas on you? Please let us know – securely and anonymously.

AUA

Even the American Urological Association Has Gone Woke

The American Urological Association (AUA) excitedly announced its upcoming “Celebrating Diversity with the AUA” initiative to its members this week. The AUANews will publish this special issue in April and is seeking submissions “on all content related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in urology.” Among the suggested topic areas are clinical research, healthcare equity, and organizational change, which “are subject to peer review and editorial approval.”

From an email to American Urological Association members.

Not all AUA members are as enthused about this announcement, however. Said one urologist: “Put a sock in it, please. I would rather read about urology.”

Put a sock in it, please. I would rather read about urology.

– AUA physician member

That’s sound advice.

Texas,State,-,Road,Sign,Map

New Lawsuit: End Discrimination at Texas Med Schools

Texas medical schools are discriminating on the basis of race – and that needs to stop. So says a new federal lawsuit filed on January 10th. It seeks to end the practice of so-called “affirmative action” at the Lone Star State’s medical schools and supports equality and fairness in applicant admission decisions.

The plaintiff is George Stewart, who “grew up in Texas with the desire to study science, become a physician and serve others with his gifting.” He “graduated from high school with a 4.39/4.0 GPA and from college at the University of Texas at Austin with a 3.96/4.0 unaudited GPA in Biology.” But he was rejected by six Texas medical schools, “while over 450 lesser qualified minority students, ranging as low as a GPA of 2.82 or an MCAT of 495, were offered admission.”

The lawsuit alleges that what’s really happening at these institutions is blatant racial discrimination:

“Each of the defendant medical schools and universities, along with nearly every medical school and university in the United States, discriminates on account of race and sex when admitting students by giving discriminatory preferences to females and non-Asian minorities, and by discriminating against whites, Asians, and men. This practice, popularly known as “affirmative action,” allows applicants with inferior academic credentials to obtain admission at the expense of rejected candidates with better academic credentials.”

Such discrimination is not only rampant, but also in clear violation of federal law:

“These race and sex preferences are illegal under the clear and unambiguous text of Title VI and Title IX, which prohibit all forms of race and sex discrimination at medical schools and universities that receive federal funds and make no exception for diversity-based affirmative-action programs.”

Do No Harm was quoted as part of a similar argument to the Supreme Court in a 2022 brief in the case Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina. The Court is set to decide that case soon, potentially ending affirmative action at universities nationwide – including medical schools.

Racial discrimination is unacceptable in medical school admission and anywhere else. Here’s hoping the federal courts return the principles of objectivity and merit to the process.

Have you been denied admission to a medical school because of affirmative action? Please let us know – securely and anonymously.

biden1

The Biden Administration Is Bribing Hospitals To Go Woke

The Biden administration is withholding taxpayer money from hospitals that aren’t sufficiently woke – essentially bribing them to adopt divisive and discriminatory policies. That’s the reality of a little-known yet far-reaching rule the administration finalized last year. With a new Congress underway, investigating such blatant identity politics overreach is urgently needed.

The Biden rule comes from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its Secretary, Xavier Becerra, who promised to make “equity” a central part of the department’s mission. The concept of equity demands that any differences in outcome be eliminated, even to the point of using racial discrimination. Within the context of health care, equity threatens to lower the quality of care for some patients in the name of making care equal for all.

The Biden rule accomplishes this goal by tying federal money that hospitals receive to their level of wokeness. To get reimbursement rate increases under Medicare and Medicaid, hospitals have to send the federal government data proving their commitment to health equity. In other words, this regulation is forcing hospitals to fixate on patients’ race instead of just their individual medical needs.

At 720 pages long, the rule mentions equity 380 times – or more than once every two pages. It is predicated on the idea that health outcomes indicate racism and bigotry by health care professionals, despite a complete lack of valid evidence. Even so, the rule creates a system in which the more woke a hospital is, the more taxpayer money it gets.

The Biden administration received significant pushback from health care providers about the draft version of the rule. Most notably, hospitals and doctors rightly pointed out that it could hurt patient health. HHS acknowledges this fact in the final version of the rule, stating in one place:

“Several commenters stated that linking payment to equity is inconsistent with the statutory requirements for calculating payment reductions. Some of these commenters observed that the payment system was designed to ensure equitable payments for hospitals that treat high-risk patients, not to advance patient level equity in outcomes.”

In other words, the Biden administration is endangering the health of high-risk patients in service to divisive and discriminatory ideology. Another section states the problem even more bluntly:

“A commenter expressed concern that linking payment to performance on equity
measures would change hospitals’ focus to factors outside of each patient’s medical diagnosis, thereby decreasing the quality of care.”

This criticism is spot on. By bribing hospitals to focus on race, the Biden administration is jeopardizing the world-class care that every patient of every race deserves. The only question now is when will Congress investigate this woke injustice?

Is the quality of care at your hospital or medical provider suffering due to woke mandates? Please let us know – securely and anonymously.

Bemidji.,Minnesota.,Usa,On,A,Map

Bemidji State University Has Embraced Some Disturbing Elements of Social Justice Ideology

Bemidji State University (BSU) in beautiful northern Minnesota has been infiltrated by some ugly philosophies that are intended to divide, indoctrinate, and misinform its students.

Do No Harm was contacted by a parent who, while researching the school for a family member with an interest in healthcare, became quite concerned about the degree of divisive and radical ideology seen on the BSU website. Indeed, a visit to the BSU Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion confirms the school has a dedication to “transformative change” and “practices that center racial inequities within the classroom.” The strategic plan makes this even clearer with its priorities of infusing DEI into “academic curriculum and classroom conversations” and encouraging DEI-focused collaborations among campus departments.

Those departments include several health sciences programs. The Psychology department places a particularly troubling emphasis on radical ideologies and anti-racism. An example of its social justice position is featured on its home page and features a link to “strategies and steps to be anti-racist.” This letter to BSU psychology students (signed by nine faculty members) directs them to some highly controversial websites and instructs them to “learn about white supremacy and anti-racism” by accessing resources “on how white people can help dismantle racist oppression.”

Letter to BSU psychology students from department faculty.

Our research also uncovered six scholarships or programs at BSU that excludes certain applicants on the basis of race/ethnicity, sex, or both. A federal civil rights complaint has been filed by Mark Perry, senior fellow at Do No Harm, for multiple violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The complaint asks the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate Bemidji State University for illegal discrimination.

It’s not surprising that our parent tipster eliminated BSU from consideration, and told us:

I have an interracial marriage and my child is of mixed race. My whole family does not subscribe to this DEI agenda and would like people to be judged on their merits as a human being and not by their race, gender, age, sexual orientation, etc.

These are words to live by, and Bemidji State University should take note. And, the Minnesota taxpayers who support this school must insist on it.

Have you found radical ideologies at colleges and universities that offer education in the healthcare sciences? Let us know about it via our secure platform.