Key Takeaways
- After the Supreme Court decision restricting the use of race in admissions, the share of medical school matriculants from groups underrepresented in medicine significantly dropped. [MedPage Today]
- Applicants from these groups were accepted at significantly lower rates than white and Asian applicants -- a break from previous years.
- The study is believed to be the first national-level analysis after the ruling, and its findings raise concerns about the future diversity of the healthcare workforce.
The number of students from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups matriculating at U.S. medical schools fell significantly in 2024 following the Supreme Court's decision restricting the use of race in admissions, a cross-sectional study showed.
Among nearly 292,000 applicants, the share of new matriculants from groups underrepresented in medicine (URiM) dropped from an average of 24.39% in 2019-2023 to 20.83% in 2024 (P<0.001), reported Mytien Nguyen, MS, an MD/PhD student at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues in JAMA Network.
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