By Karen Juanita Carrillo and Chris Lee
The overall shortage of Black doctors in the U.S. isn’t improving, despite a rapid rise in Black physicians over the past 20 years. What’s worse is that the Trump administration’s push to end affirmative action and DEI programs is likely to make it even more difficult for Black students to earn medical degrees. That, in turn, can mean poorer health outcomes for Black people.
This is because studies show that Black people have less access to medical services and fewer opportunities to maintain good health. Increasing community healthcare access to more Black physicians could lower mortality rates among Black residents, a 2023 report from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found, but the gap between Black physicians and the overall Black population remains high.
Data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) shows that some 5.7% of physicians in the United States are Black or African American, while about 12–14% of the U.S. population identifies as Black or African American.
In 1900, there were 1,704 Black doctors according to the Negro Yearbook, 1937-1938. Today, the U.S. Census reports that there are 84,633 Black doctors and surgeons.
More Black Doctors = Healthier Black Community
Important studies have shown that Black patients tend to be healthier and live longer when they have Black physicians. They are more likely to report symptoms, follow treatment plans, and use preventive medicine policies.
The National Bureau of Economic Research found that: “For diabetes and cholesterol screenings, for example, being assigned a [B]lack doctor raised the probability of receiving the test by about 20 to 25 percentage points, which was an increase of 50% or more relative to the baseline rate of screening. Screenings for blood pressure and BMI were higher as well.”
This year, the AAMC reported that the number of Black applicants to U.S. medical schools rose from 7.9% to 10.3%, but years of systemic racism and discrimination — including the implementation of federal accreditation ideas proposed in 1910 by Abraham Flexner, which advocated for a medical licensing model that led to the forced closure of Black medical schools — have had lasting effects. Only two Black medical schools, the Howard University College of Medicine (HUCM) and Meharry Medical College, survived. Since then, only two more HBCU medical schools have opened: the Morehouse School of Medicine and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU).
The closing of these schools, subsequent restrictions on access to white medical schools, and the widespread sexism that limited opportunities for women to become physicians have led to a decrease in the number of Black doctors.
JAMA estimates that closing Black medical schools in the early 20th century prevented 10,000 to 30,000 Black doctors from entering the profession.
The effect of historical discrimination on Black doctors was so bad that the AMA issued an apology for its past behavior of “holding back Black medicine.”
Addressing the Black Doctor Shortage
The Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU) in Los Angeles County regularly awards degrees to graduate-level and undergraduate nurses, physician assistants, and radiologic technologists. It also offers a master of public health degree and other study programs for healthcare professionals.
Dr. David Carlisle, CDU’s president and CEO, told the AmNews that one of the things his school is doing is creating an early pipeline for future Black medical students.
“Our university has several pipeline programs, which are not formally academic and are targeted at people before they enter college,” Carlisle said. “Those pipeline programs, the most well-known of which is the Saturday Science Academy II, bring young people from the surrounding community onto our campus. People who are as young as age 4 all the way through seniors in high school are brought in to kind of imbue in them an exposure to science, so they can develop an interest in science.”
Students interested in pursuing a career in medicine often find that there are fewer medical schools to attend. Black medical schools tend to be underfunded, and U.S. medical schools, in general, have limited admissions. The high costs associated with medical education often lead doctors to seek higher-paying positions after completing medical school.
Encouraging more science and math-based programs like CDU’s at the elementary school level, fully funding Black medical schools, and getting more predominantly white medical schools to push for higher Black enrollment are a few ways to tackle the Black doctor shortage.
This post appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.