May 25, 2025
Doctors warn removing DEI standards may harm efforts to improve healthcare equity.
On May 19, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) voted to remove diversity partnerships and programs from its evaluation criteria for medical schools awarding “MD” degrees, citing growing state-level crackdowns on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
According to USA Today, the committee indicated that those crackdowns conflict with the standards of the accrediting body, and dropping the diversity standards would allow them to establish “a single set of accreditation expectations with which all schools, regardless of their location and current legislative environment, must comply.”
A liaison committee spokesperson also told the outlet that the committee arrived at the decision following “thoughtful and careful consideration and discussion,” but regardless of what facilitated their arrival to eliminate diversity from their evaluation criteria, doctors who have been working to increase diversity in the medical field told the outlet that it represents a setback in their efforts.
Dr. Virginia Caine, the president of the National Medical Association, an organization representing Black physicians, said that the decision left her “dumbfounded.”
“We’re just dumbfounded by this decision made by LCME,” she said, before pointing to studies that indicate that Black patients often have better health outcomes and engage more when treated by Black primary care physicians.
“We have such a rich and incredible history of talented Black physicians,” Caine, who is also the public health department director of Marion County, Indiana; told the outlet. “If we knock out the access before they even are entering medical schools or academic schools, we’re just going to be a nation that’s not as creative, not as innovative, and not as successful.”
To her point, although the percentage of Black doctors has risen from 2.6% in 2019 to 5.2% in 2022, according to numbers from the Association of American Medical Colleges, it still lags behind Black Americans’ 13.7% share of the American population.
On May 22, the National Medical Association also released a statement condemning the attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion by the federal government.
“The federal administration’s orders to cut diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is negatively impacting access to medical education for the next generation of Black physicians. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), an accrediting body for medical education programs leading to a Doctor of Medicine degree, and jointly sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association, voted to eliminate its diversity programs and partnerships. These changes will have detrimental effects on qualified students, further limiting their access to a career in medicine,” the association said.
In addition to this, although there are over 150 medical schools in the United States, medical schools at four HBCUs, the Howard University College of Medicine, the Morehouse School of Medicine, the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, and Meharry University outperform predominantly white institutions when it comes to producing Black doctors, which further underscores Caine’s point.
According to Dr. Osose Obeh, who completed her residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University after completing medical school at Michigan State University, the move from the LCME along with the crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion is “disheartening.”
“There is an attack on something that is actually good,” Oboh said. “Diversity has been rebranded as giving unqualified folks opportunity, when in reality, it’s increasing exposure to qualified people.”
Corroborating Dr. Caine’s earlier statements about how Black patients engage with Black doctors, Dr. Oboh recounted an instance when she had to give her Black patients bad news.
“They (the patient’s family) were so appreciative to receive it from me,” Oboh said. “They understood why we were taking the steps we’re taking and why we were going to do the interventions we were going to do. They felt like nobody else had explained it to them.”
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