Interventions Associated With Racial and Ethnic Diversity in US Graduate Medical Education: A Scoping Review

Racially and ethnically minoritized individuals remain underrepresented in graduate medical education relative to their proportion in the population. While many programs and initiatives have been developed to address this problem, there is little consensus regarding strategies that work to improve representation across specialties.

To examine and synthesize evidence-based practices that have been used to increase the proportions of underrepresented in medicine (URiM) trainees at US residency and fellowship programs.

The authors searched PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase, PsycInfo, ERIC, Cochrane Reviews, Cochrane Trials, CINAHL, Scopus, and PROSPERO electronic databases to identify relevant studies published through January 2022. They screened all titles and abstracts for relevance and read full-text articles to identify articles reporting reliable data describing the outcomes of interventions to improve racial and ethnic diversity among trainees.

Twenty-seven articles were included in this review. Two studies reported on fellowship programs. The most common interventions included holistic review (48%), decreased emphasis on United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 scores (48%), and explicit institutional messaging regarding the importance of diversity (37%). A combination of interventions was associated with an increased number of URiM applicants, interviewees, and matriculants across various medical and surgical specialties.

In this scoping review, approaches and interventions associated with increased diversity in residency and fellowship programs were identified. Continued efforts are necessary to sustain such efforts and assess long-term outcomes.