News and Resources

Equal Opportunity Programs are essential for enhancing and maintaing diversity in the health professions. However, so-called Civil Rights Initiatives have enede these programs in some states, and such threats will continue to arise in upcoming electives.

Learn more about these initiatives and their threats to diversity in the health professions:

Anti-Equal Opportunity Initiatives: Compromising Health and Diversity—HPD Issue Brief, June 2008

After Affirmative Action: Diversity at California Medical Schools (PDF, 2 pages)—Analysis in Brief, Sept. 2008

More Battles Looming Over Affirmative Action—AAMC Reporter, Aug. 2008

Subscribe To the HPD Newsletter
Please click here to read our HPD News Digest, August 2009 edition. This edition offers numerous research opportunities for medical, dental, and veterinary students at U.S. Medical Schools! To receive periodic e-mail updates on HPD activities, e-mail hpd@aamc.org.

Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care (2003)
Published by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, this report looks at how racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive lower-quality health care than whites do, even when insurance status, income, age, and severity of health conditions are comparable. The congressionally mandated report reviews a large body of research to underscore the existence of disparities. The report presents some specific steps that can be taken to reduce and eliminate disparities.