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

Tyler B Nsekpong; Gabriella Ode; Kevin Purcell; Ruhi Randhawa; Tonya Dixon; Gary Stewart; Tino Mkorombindo; Matthew Pinto; Addisu Mesfin; Alysia Kemp; Eldrin Bhanat; Josny Thimothee; Brendan A Williams; Surajudeen Bolarinwa; Jaysson T Brooks

doi:10.1016/j.jnma.2021.12.013

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

J Natl Med Assoc. 2022 Apr;114(2):156-166. doi: 10.1016/j.jnma.2021.12.013. Epub 2022 Feb 2.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ UTMB School of Medicine, USA.
² Sports Medicine/Shoulder Orthopaedic Surgeon at Prisma Health, Easley, South Carolina, USA.
³ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi, USA.
⁴ The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
⁵ Foot and Ankle Orthopaedic Surgeon at Resurgens Orthopaedics, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁶ University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
⁷ Division Chief of Spine Surgery and Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Biomechanical Engineering, and Public Health, The University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, USA.
⁸ Orthopaedic Surgery Oncologist at Karmanos Cancer Center, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
⁹ Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, USA.
¹⁰ Attending Orthopaedic Surgeon with The Division of Orthopaedics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
¹¹ Adult Reconstruction Fellow, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
¹² UT-Southwestern and a Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Scottish Rite for Children, Dallas, Texas, USA. Electronic address: jaysson.brooks@tsrh.org.

PMID: 35120755
DOI: 10.1016/j.jnma.2021.12.013

Abstract

Background: Orthopaedic 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.

Objective: The 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).

Methods: The 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.

Results: The 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.

Conclusion: There 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.

Keywords: Black applicants; Medical schools; Orthopaedic surgery; Ranking; Residency match.

MeSH terms

Black People
Female
Humans
Internship and Residency*
Orthopedic Surgeons*
Orthopedics*
Schools, Medical
United States