Twenty-year follow-up of an enrichment program for students preparing for health professional schools

From 1972 to 1992, the Medical/Dental Education Preparatory Program (MEDPREP) of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine served 584 underrepresented-minority and educationally disadvantaged students as they prepared for admission to health professional schools.

For students who had concluded their MEDPREP participation by September 1992, data analysis was performed in terms of gender, race-ethnicity, rates of acceptance and retention, and type of professional school. In addition, a sample of 30 medical school graduates was examined for type of practice and specialty.

A total of 350 (60%) of the MEDPREP participants had been accepted to professional schools. Of those accepted, 246 (70%) were members of groups underrepresented in medicine, 301 (86%) had graduated or were in school, and 305 (87%) had been accepted to a total of 47 medical schools. Of the sample of 30 medical school graduates tracked for type of practice and specialty, 28 (93%) were providing direct patient care and 21 (70%) were board certified in the primary care specialties of family practice, pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology, and internal medicine.

Because MEDPREP has high rates of acceptance, matriculation, and graduation for its participants, and because such a high percentage of its medical school graduates entered primary care, the program may serve as a model intervention for providing more underrepresented minorities and generalists in medicine.