Diversity, diversity, diversity.
That's what healthcare needs as it enters the 21st century, according to a commission formed to study the training of healthcare professionals.
The Pew Health Professions Commission, funded by the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts, has been working on the issue since 1991. It released its final report on healthcare training and education last week.
Citing uniformity in the race and background of today's physicians, nurses and other health professionals, the commission's report called for "vastly greater racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity."
"If a doctor understands the person's culture, beliefs about healthcare and knowledge of how the healthcare system works, that doctor is more likely to be able to effectively meet that patient's needs," said former Sen. George Mitchell, the commission chairman, in a prepared statement.
The commission is not alone on the issue. The Association of American Medical Colleges has championed greater diversity in healthcare in recent years, even campaigning against initiatives to repeal affirmative action.
The commission also advocates eliminating graduate medical education payments the federal government makes to foreign students. Schools and professional associations, not the government, should be responsible for encouraging diversity, the panel believes.
Under the commission's plan, foreign students could still complete their education in the U.S. if it is subsidized by foreign aid or private funds.
The report also suggested requiring medical students to work in ambulatory settings and underserved areas.
"Every school, every program, every professional association should require its students to perform some significant amount of public service before they graduate," said Edward O'Neil, director of the Center for Health Professions at the University of California at San Francisco, which supervised the commission. "Since so much of physician education is funded by the government, physicians and other health professionals need to give something back."
