Health Workforce Diversity Initiative

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The Health Workforce Diversity Initiative is helping to promote greater racial and ethnic parity in the health workforce through measurement and accountability. In recent years, we’ve seen both nationwide protests over racial inequalities as well as a crippling pandemic disproportionately impacting communities of color. As the public debate on these issues shifts and responds to the urgency of the situation, decision makers are seeking guidance, understanding, and insights to craft effective evidence-based policies.

In terms of inequalities in healthcare, an issue of the highest concern, deepening the diversity of the workforce is an optimal strategy to address racial disparities. But this goal remains elusive without accurate data on the composition of the workforce, the pipeline, and clear benchmarks for organizations to strive toward.

The Health Workforce Diversity Initiative is dedicated to addressing under-representation among healthcare workers by analyzing data on the diversity of the health workforce and the educational pipeline across thirty health occupations, from front-line workers to physicians.

A Diversity Index examines the relative percentage of graduates (or practitioners) in a health profession compared to the percentage of individuals in the population of that race/ethnicity. Using this data, the Tracker will provide regular “report cards” on representation efforts by states, professions, and institutions, as well as an interactive data exploration tool. The Tracker is a project of the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity and the Social Mission Alliance.

SENTRY: Surveillance of Enrollment Trends and Representation Yearly in Health Professions Education

While there has been some limited progress over the past several decades to create a workforce more reflective of the U.S. population’s diversity, recent actions threaten that progress. This study assesses the impact of the 2023 Supreme Court affirmative action decision and state and federal anti-DEI actions on the diversity of applicants and matriculants in health professions education programs, specifically in medicine (allopathic and osteopathic), dental, and physician assistant education programs.

The project’s short-term goal is to provide systematic data to inform educators, policymakers, and the public about the diversity of students entering health professions education programs and the possible impact of school, state, and federal policies on diversity. Characterizing these trends will allow policymakers within the public and private spheres to make better decisions about investments in health professions education in light of the 2023 Supreme Court decision on the use of race in admissions.

The longer-term objective is to support efforts to educate a health workforce that reflects the nation’s diversity. This project has taken on additional urgency since the U.S. Department of Education announced plans to eliminate routine national data collection. Universities and state-level policymakers will need data from professional organizations to inform resource allocation and policy development.

This project is funded by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation and California Healthcare Foundation.