Minority physicians treat a disproportionately large number of patients from minority racial and ethnic groups, according to Scott A. Shipman, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School and Somnath Saha of the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Shipman and Saha claim that minority health professionals are more likely than other healthcare providers to serve Medicaid recipients, people without health insurance and people living in federally-designated underserved areas.
Shipman and Saha published these findings in the Health Affairs journal's January/February issue, and concluded that medical schools should preferentially recruit students of underrepresented minority backgrounds, suggesting that affirmative action would alleviate the current lack of access to healthcare for disadvantaged populations in the United States.
Support for affirmative action has decreased in recent years, according to the article.
Shipman said he believes the trend is a cause for concern, because even before there were "vocal opposition groups" against affirmative action, medical schools had problems attracting and enrolling enough minority medical school students.
"This has the potential for making an imperfect situation worse," Shipman said.
However, Shipman does not attribute what he identifies as a small proportion of minority health practitioners in the workforce solely to medical schools' admissions policies.
"It is a complex and longitudinal problem," Shipman said, "The problem starts with differential opportunities in primary and secondary schools."
A number of foundations and universities, as well as the Health Careers Opportunity Program -- a grant program sponsored by the federal government -- have funded programs intended to accelerate the preparedness of disadvantaged students for medical careers.
Shipman said he considered the programs "successful." The government, however, eliminated its funding for HCOP in 2006.
At DMS, minority students appear are underrepresented, according to Shipman, which he says is consistent with national data.
Hali Wickner, director of communications at DMS, said she believes that the school is doing an admirable job of admitting underrepresented minority students. 33 students of this year's entering class of 73 are considered "multicultural" or "international," Wickner said.
While DMS has no specific policy regarding the acceptance of minority students, the admissions office makes its decisions in accordance with federal guidelines, Wickner said.
"Dartmouth values having a diverse class," Wickner said.
