An American Crisis: the Lack of Black Men in Medicine

Abstract

The current state of diversity within the US medical workforce does not reflect representative numbers of the Black male population. Research data continues to reveal continuing trends in the areas of discrimination, incarceration, health disparities, and mortality with respect to Black males. The lack of increase in Black male medical school applications and matriculation contrasted by the continuing trends mentioned above illustrates that there is in fact an American crisis. We present here a call to arms, to address the need of African-American men in medicine. The absence of Black males in medical school represents an American crisis that threatens efforts to effectively address health disparities and excellence in clinical care. This disturbing trend is in need of more empirical examination of medical school data specifically in the areas of qualification barriers, race/ethnic classification, and the impact of diversity on quality of healthcare in the USA.

Keywords: Black men; Diversity; Health disparity; Medical school; Medicine.

Figure 1

Number of black or African American male medical school applicants (bars) versus percentage of black or African American applicants who matriculated (line), 1978–2014. Source: AAMC Data Warehouse: Applicant and Matriculant File, as of 5/11/2015

Figure 2

Percentage of U.S. medical school applicants by gender and race and ethnicity, 2014. Source: AAMC Data Warehouse: Applicant and Matriculant File, as of 3/26/2015

Figure 3. AAMC Data Table A-12: Applicants, First-Time Applicants, Acceptees, and Matriculants to U.S. Medical Schools by Race/Ethnicity, 2013-2014 through 2016-2017