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Article
Concerning Trends in Allopathic Medical School Faculty Rank for Indigenous People: 2014–2016
Medical Education Online
  • Erik Brodt, Oregon Health & Science University
  • Amanda Bruegl, Oregon Health & Science University
  • Erin K. Thayer, Oregon Health & Science University
  • M. Patrice Eiff, Oregon Health & Science University
  • Kelly L. Gonzales, Portland State University
  • Carlos J. Crespo, Portland State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2018
Subjects
  • Health care delivery,
  • Medical profession
Abstract

Background: Trends in faculty rank according to racial and ethnic composition have not been reviewed in over a decade.

Objective: To study trends in faculty rank according to racial and ethnicity with a specific focus on Indigenous faculty, which has been understudied.

Methods: Data from the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Faculty Administrative Management Online User System was used to study trends in race/ethnicity faculty composition and rank between 2014 and 2016, which included information on 481,753 faculty members from 141 US allopathic medical schools.

Results: The majority of medical school faculty were White, 62.4% (n = 300,642). Asian composition represented 14.7% (n = 70,647). Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish Origin; Multiple Race-Hispanic; Multiple Race-Non-Hispanic; and Black/African American faculty represented 2.2%, 2.3%, 3.0%, and 3.0%, respectively. Indigenous faculty members, defined as American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN), Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (NHPI), represented the smallest percentage of faculty at 0.11% and 0.18%, respectively. White faculty predominated the full professor rank at 27.5% in 2016 with a slight decrease between 2014 and 2016. Indigenous faculty represented the lowest percent of full professor faculty at 5.2% in 2016 for AIAN faculty and a decline from 4.6% to 1.6% between 2014 and 2016 for NHPI faculty (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: While US medical school faculty are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, representation of AIAN faculty is not improving and is decreasing significantly among NHPI faculty. Little progress has been made in eliminating health disparities among Indigenous people. Diversifying the medical workforce could better meet the needs of communities that historically and currently experience a disproportionate disease burden.

Description

© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

DOI
10.1080/10872981.2018.1508267
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/26590
Citation Information
Brodt, E., Bruegl, A., Thayer, E. K., Eiff, M. P., Gonzales, K., Crespo, C., ... & Carney, P. A. (2018). Concerning trends in allopathic medical school faculty rank for Indigenous people: 2014–2016. Medical education online, 23(1), 1508267.