A track record of diversity: Medical schools ranked by successful black applicants to orthopaedic residencies

Abstract

BackgroundOrthopaedic surgery is the least diverse surgical subspecialty in medicine. However, to date, there is no literature that shows which medical schools have successfully contributed to improving orthopaedic surgeon diversity. ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to identify the top U.S. medical schools that have successfully matched black applicants into orthopaedic surgery residencies and juxtapose this ranking to the current top medical schools as ranked by the U.S. News and World Report (USNWR). MethodsThe J. Robert Gladden Orthopaedic Society (JRGOS) database was queried for all orthopaedic surgeons, fellows, and residents who identified as black or multi-racial with black being one of the included races, yielding 938 physicians, of which 672 met our inclusion criteria. From this list, a ranking of the top 20 medical schools was generated. ResultsThe top five medical schools ranked in the JRGOS database are Howard University College of Medicine (HUCOM), Meharry Medical College, Harvard Medical School (HMS), the University of Pennsylvania, and Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). In addition, 10 (50%) of the medical schools ranked in the top 20 by the JRGOS database were also ranked by the USNWR. When ranking medical schools for black female applicants, HUCOM, MSM, HMS are the top three programs. Lastly, a ranking by region identified that the northeast contained the highest number of ranked medical schools. ConclusionThere are both historically black and non-historically black medical schools which have a proven track record of producing a significant number of future black orthopaedic surgery residents.