Future Doctors From Underrepresented in Medicine Communities at the University of Utah.

Abstract

Future Doctors (FD), a high school pathway program, was developed to address the lack of compositional diversity in the health professions at our health sciences campus. We obtained, analyzed, and compared data on FD student demographic and educational achievement at undergraduate and graduate programs at the University of Utah and graduate programs at other institutions to non-FD students. We followed students from high school to graduate school. We analyzed data from 1,897 FD participants (2014-2019). FD participants were 71% women, with 50.3% identifying as students of color. Ninety-eight students matriculated in graduate school, with 75 (76%) remaining at University of Utah and 45 (46%) attending health sciences graduate programs. FD student cohorts are more diverse than those in the University of Utah undergraduate and graduate programs, contributing to the diversity of those programs. More research is needed to ensure that graduate school gains are evidenced in all underrepresented groups.