January 19, 2012

Medical School diversity efforts lauded by AAMC

Medical School diversity efforts lauded by AAMC

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine was recently recognized by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) for being among the nation’s leaders in efforts to increase and improve diversity and issues associated with access and under-representation in academic medicine.

In his annual address to members titled “The New Excellence,” Darrell Kirch, M.D., president and CEO of the AAMC, spoke of members’ efforts to demonstrate the new excellence in the area of diversity, stating that issues of access and under-representation remain vitally important and those involved, “stand on the shoulders of people who devoted their lives to achieving them.

“This broader view of diversity as a key to improving health for all continues to be led by institutions with rich traditions of diversity, our historically black medical schools, Howard, Meharry and Morehouse, and schools such as the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.

“It is also being championed by traditionally majority-serving institutions, ranging from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine to the University of California Program in Medical Education, also known as PRIME,” Kirch said.