Future Doctors From Underrepresented in Medicine Communities at the University of Utah

Paloma F Cariello; Edgar Figueroa; Christopher M Harris; Donna R Eldridge; Melanie Hooten; Guillermo E Cuevas; Jessica L Jones; Maia Hightower; Kendall M Campbell; Mike Martineau; José E Rodríguez; Luis A Oquendo

doi:10.22454/PRiMER.2023.296084

Future Doctors From Underrepresented in Medicine Communities at the University of Utah

PRiMER. 2023 Aug 4:7:25. doi: 10.22454/PRiMER.2023.296084. eCollection 2023.

Affiliations

¹ Office of Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
² Student Health Services, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY.
³ University of Utah Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Salt Lake City, UT.
⁴ Global Health Division, Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
⁵ Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
⁶ Department of Family Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX.
⁷ Office of Budget and Institutional Analysis, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.

Abstract

Background and objectives: Future Doctors (FD), a high school pathway program, was developed to address the lack of compositional diversity in the health professions at our health sciences campus.

Methods: We obtained, analyzed, and compared data on FD student demographic and educational achievement at undergraduate and graduate programs at the University of Utah and graduate programs at other institutions to non-FD students. We followed students from high school to graduate school.

Results: We analyzed data from 1,897 FD participants (2014-2019). FD participants were 71% women, with 50.3% identifying as students of color. Ninety-eight students matriculated in graduate school, with 75 (76%) remaining at University of Utah and 45 (46%) attending health sciences graduate programs.

Conclusions: FD student cohorts are more diverse than those in the University of Utah undergraduate and graduate programs, contributing to the diversity of those programs. More research is needed to ensure that graduate school gains are evidenced in all underrepresented groups.