RALEIGH — A new report issued by the James G. Martin Center outlines how diversity, equity and inclusion at medical schools in the United States compromises “academic standards, undermine merit-based admissions and hiring, and jeopardize public health outcomes.”
“Medical education must prioritize competence, not ideology,” Jenna A. Robinson, James G. Martin Center president said in a press release. “This report reveals the extent to which DEI policies are weakening the physician pipeline at a time when Americans need highly skilled, well-trained doctors.”
Authored by Martin Center Senior Fellow Jay Schalin, the report, “An End to Excellence: How Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Undermine Our Medical Schools,” looked at the 10 top-ranked American medical schools with respect to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and policies.
The schools in the report include Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Stanford University School of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Yale School of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles and Weill Cornell Medicine.
Schalin’s report examines how DEI policies, described as an aggressive extension of affirmative action, have eroded meritocracy in the nation’s medical schools by prioritizing race, gender and ideologies in areas like admissions, faculty hiring, curricula and student programs, potentially leading to less competent physicians and compromised health care.
Overall, the report delves into DEI’s real-world impacts, such as discriminatory admissions favoring underrepresented groups with lower MCAT scores and GPAs, and notes the pushback from schools over state anti-DEI laws and President Donald Trump’s executive orders on ending DEI in higher education.
The key findings include DEI being “entrenched” in the top institutions examined in the report, as well as DEI being “embedded” in medical courses, “often displacing core scientific content.”
The findings also state that medical school faculty are increasingly hired for ideological reasons rather than on academic merit, and that some schools require “anti-racism” training and ideological or progressive cause “loyalty statements.”
The report also found the use of merit took a back seat to fulfilling racial and other demographic preferences in admissions practices, which violates the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in the Students for Fair Admissions cases against the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Harvard University. The ruling effectively ended affirmative action admissions by prohibiting racial discrimination in university admissions.
To rectify the situation, Schalin’s recommendations include elimination of all DEI policies in medical schools, including possibly statutory intervention, along with mandating use of “objective” admissions criteria like MCAT scores, and ditching loyalty and diversity statements.
Schalin also says public transparency when it comes to data on hiring, admissions and other school metrics needs to be enforced, as well as the institution of oversight tools like audits and the monitoring of course materials, websites and handbooks.
Another recommendation is for schools to use “race-blind” admissions procedures to keep admissions objective and merit-based, and to ensure DEI in medical education doesn’t compromise fairness and competence.
“DEI, by any name, is blatantly and obviously anti-meritocratic; it openly substitutes such characteristics as race and gender for talent and achievement. The concept of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion fails on two fundamental principles,” the report’s conclusion states in part.
“Doctors simply must be chosen from among the most intellectually gifted and studious individuals in society, the report says in closing. “It’s time to bring back pure meritocracy in medical schools. Our lives depend on it — literally.”
