Promoting Diversity in the Health Professions

In 1991, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) launched a national campaign to enroll 3,000 underrepresented minority students in medical school by the year 2000. (The AAMC defined underrepresented minorities as blacks, Mexican Americans, mainland Puerto Ricans, and Native Americans, which includes American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians.*) The initiative, named Project 3000 by 2000, focused on education-pipeline interventions. Although the project did not meet its numeric goal, in large part because of court decisions in several regions of the country that hampered affirmative action programs, Project 3000 by 2000 did have a number of important successes. At a time when there is a need to develop new and creative ways to promote diversity in health professions education, there are a number of lessons to be learned from this project. Large-scale national campaigns serve an extremely useful purpose in promoting diversity in the health professions. And for these campaigns to be successful, it is important that the health professions work together to coordinate their activities and share their resources to ensure that health professions close the diversity gap in the twenty-first century. Dr. Terrell is Vice President of the Division of Community and Minority Programs, and Mr. Beaudreau is a Research Associate with the Division of Community and Minority Programs—both at the Association of American Medical Colleges. Direct correspondence to Dr. Charles Terrell, Division of Community and Minority Programs, Association of American Medical Colleges, 2450 N Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037; 202-828-0572 phone; 202-862-6282 fax; [email protected].