One other effect I think they’ll see comes from the fact that diversity in medicine actually does matter. It’s not just a “woke” thing or wanting more of a certain minority in your med school class to look good or pander to an audience. I’ve shadowed at a hospital in town that gets a huge chunk of its patients from the Medicaid/low income background and many of them are African American. Most of the doctors are white, make a lot of money, and grew up at least middle class. You can just tell when the patient knows the doctor doesn’t get their situation and can’t relate at all or thinks they are stupid or careless for doing what they have to do, skipping appointments from a lack of transportation, etc. Someone’s background has a huge impact on their health, and it’s important to have doctors that can empathize with the patients and actually understand their situation. So having more doctors be from higher income backgrounds isn’t a simple solution to the situation because it’ll only further worsen this problem.
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Agree! And this is why MD and DO schools expect their applicants to work or volunteer with those who are less fortunate. BUT that doesn’t take the place of having doctors who come from diverse economic backgrounds…which I agree is very important!
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