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In a new study, researchers reported that programs created to help increase the number of underrepresented minority faculty members in medical schools do not help. The research team headed by James Guevara, MD, MPH from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia compared the percentages of minority faculty members in medical schools with or without these diversity initiatives and found no major differences in the number of minorities working at the medical schools.

"Minority physicians and scientists have been inadequately represented among medical school faculty when compared with their representation in the U.S. population...In addition, underrepresented minority faculty have been less likely to hold senior faculty and administrative positions and less likely to receive National Institutes of Health research awards," the authors wrote. "Although it is clear that efforts to enhance diversity and inclusion are increasing, it is not clear whether minority faculty development programs are effective in general at enhancing the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority faculty."

In order to determine if these programs work, the research team performed an analysis of the Association of American Medical Colleges, which is a database with information on the faculty in U.S. medical schools. There was also information on full-time faculty working in medical schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The data encompassed the time frame of 2000 to 2010. Underrepresented minorities included black, Hispanic, Native American, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander people.

The researchers found that from 2000 to 2010, the overall number of underrepresented minority faculty members increased from 6.8 percent to 8 percent relatively. This was an increase from 6,565 people to 9,009. The rate in which underrepresented minority people were hired increased from 9.4 percent to 12.1 percent during the same time frame. The researchers also found that the percentage of underrepresented minority faculty members who were promoted increased from 6.3 to 7.9 percent.

When the researchers focused on race, they found that for black employees, the rate of employment in medical schools increased from 3.2 percent to 3.4 percent. For Hispanic faculty members, the percentage increased from 3.6 to 4.3 percent. The researchers then examined the same percentages in medical schools with diversity initiatives, which were 36 schools out of a total of 124 schools that were studied. The researchers found that these schools did not have higher rates of employing underrepresented minority people. From 2000 to 2010, the number of underrepresented minority faculty members increased from 6.5 percent to 7.4 percent in schools with programs. In schools without programs, the percentage increased from 7 to 8.3 percent.

"This relatively small increase may have been the result of an increase in the percentage of faculty hires that involve underrepresented minority faculty and efforts to increase the pipeline of medical school faculty," the authors wrote.

The study was published in JAMA.