Diversifying the Physician Workforce —Reply

In Reply We thank Mr Rumalla for his comments about early-commitment medical programs. One concern about holistic review, which is based on applicants ’ multiple academic attributes beyond Medical College Admission Test scores, is the quality of the matriculants selected. Two early-commitment medical programs evaluated academic performance (eg, US Medical Licensing Examination scores, Alpha Omega Alpha selection) of more than 650 students enteri ng medical school through a combined BA-MD path over a 13- to 15-year period and found no difference in academic outcomes compared with students who did not participate in combined degree programs. As highlighted by Rumalla, less than 3% of matriculants to these programs were from socioeconomically disadvantaged or racial or ethnic groups recognized as underrepresented in medicine. One combined BA-MD program that was dedicated to addressing health disparities was able to achieve 55% matriculants underrepresented in medicine by applying holistic review approaches aligned with both their medical school mission and admissions practices.
Source: JAMA - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research