Why Diversity is Important in Health Care

Does it matter what the color of your health care professional’s skin is? Does it affect
heath outcomes in patients?

The quick answer is yes it does and let me explain even further.

There’s a medical school where I live in the Virginia Beach, Va area called Eastern Virginia
Medical School (EVMS). This year it is celebrating 50 years of operation.

One of its purposes is to serve the local communities many of which are Black or other minority 
groups. It also actively recruits persons of color both as staff and as students. 

As a matter of fact, U.S. News & World Report’s 2023-2024 rankings found that EVMS is the 
most diverse medical school in Virginia with 22% of their medical students identifying as part of
a racial or ethnic minority. 

This is a big deal when you consider that only about 8% of Virginia’s 22,800 active physicians 
identify as African American. 

So why would having a doc be the same color as the patient be important?

The research studies that have been done show why …
They show a reduction in infant mortality, greater patient adherence to healthcare guidelines,
Higher patient satisfaction and better understanding of cancer risks.
They even found for every 10% increase in the number of Black primary care physicians results in
an increase in Black patients increasing their longevity by 30.6 days.

At EVMS, they have also found that having diversity in the school population gave students and faculty
a better understanding of cultural differences.

So…it’s simple. The more diversity the better the health outcomes of the people that EVMS serves.

If other medical schools adopted this approach, you’d be talking about a major improvement in 
health care outcomes!
(Reported EVMS Magazine, Issue 16.1)