Commentary

Discrimination Comes To Thoracic Surgery

  • November 9, 2023

The Thoracic Surgery Foundation is the latest medical organization to engage in racial discrimination. A source pointed us toward several concerning scholarships for 2024. Like so many other institutions in medicine, the Foundation is downplaying merit in favor of skin color, which ultimately puts patient health at risk. The scholarships in question are the “Underrepresented Robotic General Thoracic Surgeon Development Award” and the “The Levi Watkins Innovation and Leadership Development Scholarship.” Both are only available to applicants who are “underrepresented” in medicine. That’s code for racial and ethnic minorities whose representation in the medical profession is less than their share of the national population. It’s also blatant discrimination.

Commentary

Dr. Stanley Goldfarb Recognizes Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Vos for Stance Against DEI in Medical Education

  • University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
  • November 9, 2023

The University of Wisconsin System recently announced it will use $32 million from state budget funds to expand healthcare training in the state. However, Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has stated that no money will be released until the UW System eliminates all DEI initiatives. Read the letter Do No Harm chairman Dr. Stanley Goldfarb sent to Speaker Vos, asking him to give special consideration to removing DEI in the medical education programs at UW. "This issue goes well beyond the quality of the education they provide," Dr. Goldfarb said. "Ultimately, it affects the health and well-being of everyone who will one day be treated by the physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals they teach."

Commentary

Rep. Murphy’s Fight For Fairness and Free Speech In Congress

  • November 9, 2023

Should medical schools force students or faculty to believe in “diversity, equity, and inclusion”? For that matter, should any institution of higher education? The obvious answer is a resounding “no,” yet federal law isn’t so clear. So kudos to Rep. Greg Murphy from North Carolina for fighting to enshrine fairness and free speech in the laws of the land. Rep. Murphy, who’s a licensed doctor, recently introduced an amendment to the appropriations bill for Labor and Health and Human Services.

Resource

Myths and Facts About Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

  • November 9, 2023

There are many misunderstandings about aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and how it affects issues like civil rights, school accreditation, and the maintenance of DEI departments in higher education. Read about five myths related to DEI and the facts that you need to be well informed about what DEI is, and what it isn't.

Commentary

University of Kansas School of Medicine Requires Students Complete ‘Social Determinants to Health’ Assignment to Meet DEI Objectives

  • University of Kansas School of Medicine
  • November 9, 2023

The University of Kansas Medical Center School of Medicine (KUSOM) is requiring students to meet “diversity objectives and competencies” through assignments that demand a focus on “social determinants to health,” including patient claims of having experienced “systemic racism,” say Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents obtained by Do No Harm. Even following the Supreme Court’s ruling in June that found race-based admissions practices to be unconstitutional, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) at KUSOM is touting its dedication “to recruiting, retaining and promoting diversity and health equity among its students and faculty.”

Press Release

Do No Harm Challenges Tennessee’s Racial Quotas for State Boards and Commissions

  • November 8, 2023

Nashville, TN; November 8, 2023:  Today, Do No Harm, a prominent national nonprofit committed to safeguarding healthcare from radical and divisive ideology, filed a federal lawsuit against the unlawful racial quotas imposed on the governor of Tennessee when making appointments to state boards and commissions.   The Tennessee Board of Podiatric…

Commentary

Clinical Advisor is Misadvising

  • November 7, 2023

Clinical Advisor claims to be a medical news and opinion site designed for nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Discerning whether that news is real or fake will require some effort from readers. A recent article offered up an intriguing headline: “Cultural competency training changes behavior among emergency department nurses.” The headline references a poster presentation at the recent DNPs of Color Annual Meeting. The poster shares results from an intervention in which the researcher measured “cultural awareness” at baseline, then once again immediately after watching a one-hour movie called “Ending Racism is Everyone’s Responsibility,” and then a third time four to six weeks after that. The researcher observed that “cultural awareness” scores increased through the three observation periods.

Commentary

Meet Raheem Williams, Do No Harm Senior Fellow

  • November 6, 2023

In 2018, Raheem Williams couldn’t have known that his professional and educational backgrounds in economics and social policy — combined with a personal history of digging for medical answers ¬— would lead him to be an advocate for the safety of children. But today, Williams is just that: A researcher who demands data-driven information about all things, especially when it involves children and irreversible medical procedures.

Commentary

Washington State University Hides Its Comments to the AAMC in the DICE Inventory

  • Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
  • November 4, 2023

Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine doesn’t want to reveal just how much it has aligned with the AAMC’s politicized policies for medical schools, as it has shown in its Diversity, Inclusion, Culture, and Equity (DICE) Inventory document it sent to Do No Harm. Here’s the background. In November 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.

Commentary

Eastern Virginia Medical School DEI Officer Informs Colleagues National DEI Group Will Be ‘Opposing Legislation Against Use of Race in Admissions’

  • Eastern Virginia Medical School
  • November 2, 2023

The vice president of diversity and inclusion at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) attempted to offer support to his DEI colleagues during what he called the “difficult days” following the Supreme Court’s decision that outlawed race-based admission practices. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents obtained by Do No Harm show Mekbib Gemeda, Ed.D. forwarded to members of the Health Professions Chapter (HPC) of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) information he gathered from a meeting held by the group’s president Paulette Granberry Russell, J.D., on June 28, the day before the release of the Court’s ruling.

Commentary

Vanderbilt University Medical Center Department of Radiology Kicks Off Its DEI Week With “Emerging Models of Health Equity” Claiming Racism is the Cause of Disease

  • Vanderbilt University
  • November 1, 2023

Leave it to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) to find a way to infuse racism and health equity into every aspect of medicine. The Department of Radiology’s joint effort with the VUMC Office of Diversity and Inclusion this week demonstrates just how far they are willing go with its mission of “achieving health equity.” The 2023 Vanderbilt Radiology Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Week event kicked on October 23 with a Grand Rounds session by Dr. Ruth Carlos titled "The Biology of Discrimination: Social Genomics and Health Equity.”

Commentary

UNLV Refuses to Reveal Their Score on the AAMC’s DICE Inventory

  • University of Nevada Las Vegas
  • October 31, 2023

For the past ten months, we have been reporting on the public medical schools that participated in the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Diversity, Inclusion, Culture, and Equity (DICE) Inventory, including the University of Nevada Las Vegas Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine. But UNLV has thwarted all our attempts to obtain a full copy of the school’s DICE Inventory responses. They’re clearly nervous about what it contains.

Commentary

The Gold Foundation’s Focus on “Humanism” Finds a Home in DEI Movement

  • October 27, 2023

An anonymous member of Do No Harm recently contacted us regarding concerns about a charitable organization that is using its influence and resources to perpetuate concepts like anti-racism, health equity, and identity politics – all with an innocuous motto of “keeping healthcare human.”

Commentary

A Better Way To Beat Anti-Semitism at UCLA: Ditch DEI

  • University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
  • October 25, 2023

The faculty of UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine don’t understand why anti-Semitism is rampant on campus.

Commentary

Minnesota’s Racially Discriminatory Board of Social Work

  • October 25, 2023

Minnesota is discriminating by race and ethnicity. Look no further than its mandate on who’s eligible to serve on the Board of Social Work. As the Pacific Legal Foundation has uncovered, the state is putting race above the qualification that matters most in health care: Expertise. This discrimination is therefore a direct threat to patients. It must be stopped immediately. The Board of Social Work is made up of fifteen members appointed by the Governor. However, state law requires that, of the ten social worker members, “at least five members must be members of: (1) a community of color; or (2) an underrepresented community.”