Minorities in medicine: past, present, and future

Since 1970 the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has had two key policies about minorities in medicine: (1) special attention should be paid to minority groups underrepresented in medicine, and (2) minority groups should be represented in medicine in the same proportions as in the population as a whole. Despite strong gains in the 1970s in increasing the number of black trainees and graduates, the proportion of minorities in medicine now is declining in relation to the total population. The paper discusses this situation, changes in U.S. minority populations, factors that affected the attempt to achieve parity in medicine, the current status of minorities in medical training (including educational debt) and on medical faculties, and remedies for institutions' lack of success in achieving parity. Three successful programs are described, as are the broader social issues that underlie academic medicine's attempt to increase the proportion of minorities in medicine.