American Society of Hematology: building a comprehensive minority recruitment and retention professional program

In 2003, the Institute of Medicine noted the need to improve workforce diversity. The American Society of Hematology (ASH) responded by developing the Minority Recruitment Initiative (MRI) to recruit diverse physicians/scientists into hematology. We evaluated the outcomes of the program. From 2004 to 2022, there were 405 awardees. Compared with national estimates, MRI awardees were less likely to discontinue their degree programs. MRI graduate student awardees had 0% attrition (97.5% confidence interval [CI], 10.6), whereas the national minority graduate student attrition was 36%. Medical student awardees had 2.2% (95% CI, 0.61-5.6) attrition, compared with the minority medical school attrition of 5.6%. Awardees were more likely than expected to pursue hematology-oncology (5.7% minority national estimate) because 14.4% (95% CI, 8.1-23.0) of medical student awardees and 88.5% (95% CI, 70.0-97.6) of early career awardees remain in the field. ASH has developed a successful program, but continued efforts are needed to advance equity in hematology.