As medical schools continue to support programs for diversity in medical education, more students from underrepresented, educationally and economically disadvantaged backgrounds seek careers in medicine. Greater diversity and inclusion are not only important in equalization, but they also prepare medical students to more effectively meet the needs of an increasingly diverse patient population, which is crucial to ultimately eliminating health disparities within health care. However, today’s subject matter experts continue to represent old demographics that are mostly white, male and upper socio-economic group. Clinical trials, that guide clinical practice, often are based on a mostly White population: while people of color make up about 39% of the U.S. population, these groups represent as low as 2% of patients in trials.
Diversity in health care goes far beyond a language barrier. It’s about understanding the mindset of a patient within a larger context of culture, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and socioeconomic realities. However, most medical education patient examples are limited in their representation of the diverse patient population. During simulated case presentations, have you ever encountered a patient wearing a religious headdress or being described as in a same sex relationship? Mainstream stock images distributors often lack images of different populations.
This session will be designed to provide medical education providers with practical tools to help them make their education more representative of their audience. We will review ways to improve diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) via three different approaches: by targeting the planners, the content creators, and the content itself.
The first part of this education will include a complex and often difficult discussion of assessing the diversity within our own planning teams. Learners will be asked to reflect on who is planning the education; what are the implications of a homogenous planning team; and what can we do to increase diverse voices within our own teams. Attendees will encouraged to share their thoughts. The facilitator will help learners to identify achievable efforts that lead to greater diversity among planners of education.
The second part of this education will involve developing a DEI speaker/faculty policy. We will review the “do’s” and “don’ts” of developing your own policy with a focus on language. Attendees will be provided with examples of existing policies developed by other organizations involved in medical education.
Finally, we will discuss increasing DEI within the content by providing examples of how this can be achieved. Learners will learn about available resources like websites that offer stock images of a more diverse population. We will discuss inclusive language, inclusion of diverse patient stories, and other tools to address DEI within medical education.
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