The Cure for Racial Discrimination in Medical Education

President Trump is rightly demanding that colleges and universities prove they aren’t discriminating by race. Earlier this month, the president ordered his Department of Education to obtain their admissions data to ensure compliance with the Supreme Court’s 2023 ban on affirmative action. A recent report by my organization makes clear that medical schools are still heavily prioritizing less-qualified black applicants at the expense of Asians and whites — likely violating the Supreme Court’s ruling by continuing to discriminate by race. While enforcing the ruling is important, federal and state lawmakers should also refocus medical education on merit alone, for the sake of patient health.

I know from more than 50 years of experience at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine that admissions committees routinely sacrifice the primary consideration of merit in favor of secondary and even tertiary considerations. In their rush to admit a de facto quota of minority students, they have long focused not only explicitly on race but also on whether students have intangible qualities and different experiences — everything from participating in the Olympics to working at a clinic in Africa.

SG

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Stanley Goldfarb

Stanley Goldfarb, a former associate dean at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, is the chairman of Do No Harm.

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President Trump is rightly demanding that colleges and universities prove they aren’t discriminating by race. Earlier this month, the president ordered his Department of Education to obtain their admissions data to ensure compliance with the Supreme Court’s 2023 ban on affirmative action. A recent report by my organization makes clear that medical schools are still heavily prioritizing less-qualified black applicants at the expense of Asians and whites — likely violating the Supreme Court’s ruling by continuing to discriminate by race. While enforcing the ruling is important, federal and state lawmakers should also refocus medical education on merit alone, for the sake of patient health.

I know from more than 50 years of experience at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine that admissions committees routinely sacrifice the primary consideration of merit in favor of secondary and even tertiary considerations. In their rush to admit a de facto quota of minority students, they have long focused not only explicitly on race but also on whether students have intangible qualities and different experiences — everything from participating in the Olympics to working at a clinic in Africa.