A Focus on Equity
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s the pandemic raged on, our nation faced another crisis sparked by the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. The recognition of disparities of outcomes in COVID-19 for communities of color, and the epidemic of structural racism in American society and healthcare underlying those disparities, led CMSS members to issue statements condemning racism in healthcare and committing to using our platforms to fight racism and advance equity and inclusion in our member societies and in medicine more broadly.
CMSS DEI Priorities • Develop innovative programs across the full pathway to support greater engagement, inclusion, mentorship of students, residents, fellows, and physicians who are underrepresented in medicine. • Support engagement, inclusion, and mentorship of underrepresented in medicine students, residents, fellows, and physicians. • Increase diversity, inclusion, and engagement of those underrepresented in medicine, women, LGBTQ, and younger physicians into specialty society leadership. • Develop an anti-racism collaborative across societies to identify effective strategies to counter structural racism in healthcare and the medical profession.
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Specialty societies have supported critically needed dialogues, including important conversations about racism encountered by Black physicians, while considering how they as societies can actively work to remove barriers to equitable advancement in specialty-society leadership and in healthcare at large.
“ With more than 800,000 physicians across 45 specialties, the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) deplores the negative impact of racism in our nation and of racial inequities in our healthcare system…We are committed to using our platform to improve the health of every patient we serve.”
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the protests that followed, CMSS issued a definitive statement on, and commitment to, promoting equity and addressing racism in our society. This statement was also adopted by many of our member organizations:
But we recognized that statements alone are not enough. So we took action along with our medical-society partners and established measurable goals for diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism that will remain a priority for years to come.
SHARING OF BEST PRACTICES
EQUITY IN MEDICAL EDUCATION
Many of our member societies had already been leading efforts focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), while others were just beginning. We wanted to share the excellent resources that were being used by our members with a broader audience, and our DEI PPG was front and center in providing a forum for societies to learn from one another what has been successful in those efforts and what has not. The PPG includes more than 60 society DEI leaders who have been meeting monthly, working together on projects like gathering and recommending best practices in collection and use of member demographic data. Their work will be vital to the success of CMSS’s efforts and those of our members to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in healthcare.
We joined with the Organization of Program Director Associations (OPDA), a convened group of CMSS, to take a stand against inherent bias in medical education and training. OPDA’s statement and call to action, released in February 2021, read in part:
We condemn racism and discrimination, and challenge training programs and healthcare systems to evaluate their educational frameworks, policies, and hierarchy in order to improve equity for all. Excerpt from February 2021 OPDA statement.
