title: Postbaccalaureate premedical programs to promote physician-workforce diversity.
abstract: There is a critical need for enhanced health-professions workforce diversity to drive excellence and to improve access to quality care for vulnerable and underserved populations. In the current higher education environment, post-baccalaureate premedical programs with a special focus on diversity, sustained through consistent institutional funding, may be an effective institutional strategy to promote greater health professions workforce diversity, particularly physician-workforce diversity. In 2014, 71 of the 200 programs (36%) in a national post-baccalaureate premedical programs data base identified themselves as having a special focus on groups underrepresented in medicine and/or on economically or educationally disadvantaged students. Three post-baccalaureate premedical programs with this focus are described in detail and current and future challenges and opportunities for post-baccalaureate premedical programs are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Washington University.
authors.forename: Dorothy A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Andriole
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, The Ohio State University.
authors.forename: Leon
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: McDougle
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Southern Illinois University.
authors.forename: Harold R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Bardo
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Michigan State University.
authors.forename: Wanda D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Lipscomb
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Southern Illinois University.
authors.forename: Anneke M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Metz
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University.
authors.forename: Donna B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Jeffe
keywords: Underrepresented minorities; diversity; post-baccalaureate premedical programs; students