BMJ  2006;332:740 (1 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7544.740

Editorial

Increasing the number of medical students from under-represented minorities

Innovative method needs to be replicated elsewhere

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Better health care and a reduction in health disparities occur when the physician workforce is diverse in background, ethnicity, culture, and race.^{1 2} Unfortunately, there are not enough students from economically and educationally deprived backgrounds in the pipeline to achieve a sufficiently diverse physician workforce. A paper by Greenhalgh and colleagues in this issue describes an innovative and thoughtful approach of reaching and engaging these students.³ The project steering group used "partnering" schools and teachers in inner London to identify students from deprived backgrounds who had motivation and ability in the sciences. Teachers reaffirmed the problems the students needed to overcome to be successful in gaining a medical education: lack of self determination, lack of confidence, and lack of information. The group used the summer school programme to target these deficiencies and ignite in the students a sense of purpose and confidence, which was the first step in engaging them . . . [Full text of this article]

Office of Student Affairs, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
(plcarr@bu.edu)

Office of Student Affairs, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA

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"We were treated like adults"—development of a pre-medicine summer school for 16 year olds from deprived socioeconomic backgrounds: action research study

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BMJ 2006 332: 762-767. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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But don't stop there

Anthony EJ Fitchett
bmj.com, 31 Mar 2006 [Full text]

Increasing the number of medical students from under-represented minorities – don’t forget the cost of university.

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