Autumn Nobles, BA; Bianka Aceves Martin, BS; Jaileessa Casimir, BS; Sarah Schmitt, BS; Geoffrey Broadbent, BS
Corresponding Author: Autumn Nobles, BA; Yale School of Medicine. Email: autumn.nobles@yale.edu
Section: Special Communication
Publication Date: 1/13/2022
Medical schools have an important directive - to train the next generation of physicians. Faced with a primary care physician shortage, increasing numbers of underrepresented faculty leaving academic medicine, low representation of women in leadership positions, and an ongoing pandemic, medical schools have a duty to implement solutions to alleviate these issues. Efforts have been made to create more diverse medical school classes, but those efforts are not mirrored in senior faculty demographics. In this medical students’ perspective piece, the authors analyzed the demographics of medical school deans in comparison with the United States’ demographics and the current composition of active physicians. The authors looked at the specialty, race/ethnicity, and gender of medical school deans in 2019. Based on the analysis, in 2019 only 11% of deans were underrepresented minorities (URM), 16% of deans were primary care physicians, and 18% of deans were women. When compared to the makeup of physicians in the United States and the population as a whole, these numbers are unrepresentative of national demographics.
Medical schools should strive to hire deans who are more representative of their student and United States demographics. Deans play a key role in the focus of the medical school and institutional culture. They oversee the chairs, the budgets, and the overall mission of the school. By hiring deans with a variety of race/ethnicities, specialties, and genders, schools set an important precedent that could lead to more pipeline programs, increased underrepresented faculty retention, and more primary care physicians.