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SEPTEMBER 6, 2000

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is reporting today that under-represented minority faculty members in United States accredited medical schools are not being promoted at the same rates as their White counterparts.

But while African-American and Hispanic faculty appear to be the most affected by the racial disparity, American Indian and Alaska Native professors were tenured at rates either equal to or higher than their minority, and even White counterparts.

The study, "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Faculty Promotion in Academic Medicine", was conducted on professors who received initial appointments from the years 1980 through 1989. During this time period, American Indians and Alaska Natives made up 0.1 percent (58) of the total population (50145) of medical school faculty members during the time period.

According to the report, American Indian and Alaska Native Associate Professors had a tenure rate of 71 percent (See Graph 1) whereas Native Assistant Professors had a tenure rate of 45 percent (See Graph 2).

This compares to a 50 percent tenure rate for White Associate Professors and a 46 percent tenure rate of White Assistant Professors .

Tenure is the process by which an assistant or associate professor is chosen by his or her peers to become a permanent member of the faculty. It can be a long and politically-charged process.

"The process of receiving tenure is a difficult one for most medical school professors," cites the report.

JAMA identified two critical factors to receiving tenure: entering into a tenure-track position such as an assistant or associate professorship, and receiving grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The more likely a faculty member does these two things, the more likely he or she will receive tenure, the researchers conclude.

The JAMA researchers also stressed the importance of medical schools' commitment to diversity in training doctors. But the study identifies a problem facing schools -- how to recruit and maintain minority faculty.

The JAMA excluded historically black colleges and Puerto Rican medical schools from its report.

Get the Report:
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Faculty Promotion in Academic Medicine (JAMA September 2000)

Relevant Links:
The Journal of the American Medical Association - jama.ama-assn.org
The American Medical Association - www.ama-assn.org

Only on Indianz.Com:
The Association of American Indian Physicians (The Medicine Wheel 4/24)