Profession
Medical school faculty reveal attitudes about diversity
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 23, 2009
A Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine study found that many faculty members gave the school poor marks in awareness and sensitivity to racial and ethnic diversity.
Lisa Cooper, MD, the report's lead researcher and a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, said the results likely reflect diversity issues at medical teaching institutions across the country.
"What we are seeing at Johns Hopkins is likely to be the case in medical schools everywhere," Dr. Cooper said in a statement. "Namely, that enhancing racial and ethnic diversity in medicine in general, and in academic medicine in particular, remains a challenge."
The study, published in the January Academic Medicine, surveyed 352 John Hopkins tenure-track physicians from 2004 to 2005. Among minority faculty members, just 12% were satisfied with racial and ethnic diversity at the school, compared with 47% of nonminority faculty. Minority faculty also were less likely to believe that networking opportunities included minorities.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/02/23/prbf0223.htm.
