Diversity Among Med Students Leading to Diverse Care

by KYW's medical editor Dr. Brian McDonough

There was a very interesting report in the Journal of the American Medical Association looking at attempts to have more diverse medical school classes.

According to the research, there is a very important reason for this. As our country becomes more diverse, studies are showing that certain minorities are not receiving adequate care. The common thinking has been that graduating diverse students as doctors might lead to better care of diverse populations.

But here is the surprising point of the study:   the presence of diverse medical students caused other students to be more in tune with students from a wide variety of ethnic groups. Essentially the students from every ethnic group became more open to others’ needs.