How Otolaryngology Programs Are Working to Create a More Diverse Workforce

Diversity in the Workplace

The benefits of diversity in all workplaces, not just medicine, have been publicized. In 2013, the Harvard Business Review reported that diversity, both inherent (including the characteristics one is born with such as gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation), and acquired (traits such as knowledge learned while living outside the country where one was raised), “unlocks innovation and drives market growth—a finding that should intensify efforts to ensure that executive ranks both embody and embrace the power of differences,” wrote Sylvia Ann Hewlett, the lead author of the study (Harvard Bus Rev. Published December 2013.).

A 2018 study of diversity in venture capital firms, also published in the Harvard Business Review, found that “diversity significantly improves financial performance… and even though the desire to associate with similar people—a tendency academics call homophily—can bring social benefits to those who exhibit it, including a sense of shared culture and belonging, it can also lead investors and firms to leave a lot of money on the table,” wrote lead author Paul Gompers (Harvard Bus Rev. Published July 2018. Available at: hbr.org/2018/07/the-other-diversity-dividend). And, finally, a 2004 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences found that “groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers” (PNAS. 2004;101:16385–16389).

“From a social justice standpoint, increasing diversity in the physician workforce has been shown to reduce health disparities,” said Oneida Arosarena, MD, associate dean for diversity and inclusion at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine and a professor of otolaryngology at Temple University in Philadelphia.

What is medicine, and otolaryngology in particular, doing to address diversity in the field?

Diversity in Education

Different academic institutions are taking similar approaches to identifying the best candidates for their medical schools, even when those applicants might not be obvious by traditional measures. At Temple University, which in 2015 established its office of health equity, diversity and inclusion, a diversity council works among all members of the health system community to help address concerns among racial, ethnic, and gender minorities, and also implemented implicit bias training for the medical school’s admissions team. As a result, applicants are considered for admission under holistic review, which analyzes everything about a candidate, rather than merely looking for high marks on standardized tests.

“Traditional medical school and residency committees would just screen people with a cutoff based on a score on the MCATs or USMLE Step 1 test,” said Dr. Arosarena. “But by doing that, you really eliminate people who are great candidates but are not great test takers. Instead, we look at grades as a measure of academic performance, leadership qualities such as whether the candidate was involved as a leader in sports or other organizations, and also humanitarian qualities, such as how involved they were in the community.”

The process also considers how far a candidate has come to achieve what they have achieved. “If both your parents are doctors, it’s not so great a stretch to think you might be a doctor,” said Dr. Arosarena. “If you come from a single-parent and/or a low-income home, you had a lot to overcome to get to the point where you are applying to medical school.”

Holistic review takes longer than simply scanning through test scores for acceptance, and it requires more people to sit on the application committee. But more voices in the process produces a more diverse group of accepted applicants. In 2016, when Temple began using holistic review, there were six accepted URM applicants, out of a total of 210. Today, classes average between 20 and 30 URM.

The University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor is currently three years into a five-year diversity, equity, and inclusion plan to improve diversity at every level so that the climate is more inclusive of all people, said Dr. Brown. Various initiatives, such as training in unconscious bias and other educational efforts, grants for diversity projects by different members of the Michigan community, and mentoring opportunities, all help to increase awareness about the importance of a diverse academic community. All medical departments are asked to attend the Student National Medical Association’s (SNMA) annual conference, where medical students can learn more about different clinical opportunities with the medical school. The students have the opportunity to work through medical simulations alongside Michigan medical faculty and residents.

At Michigan, about 20% of medical students each year are URM, said Dr. Brown, and that number has gone up about 1% each year for the past four years. The percentage of URM residents has doubled in the past three years, from 3% to 6.5% identifying as Black, Latino, Pacific Islander and/or Native American, he added.