THE ENTRY OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS INTO US MEDICAL-SCHOOLS - AN EVALUATION OF RECENT TRENDS

A need to reassess US medical schools' admission of African-American s tudents exists based on recent challenges to affirmative action. The A ssociation of American Medical Colleges (AMMC) provided US medical sch ool enrollment data and characteristics. Measures of enrollment were c onstructed For each medical school and aggregated by ownership type an d state. After peaking at 1311 students in 1994, African-American medi cal school matriculation decreased by 8.7% by 1996. This decline was d isproportionately generated by public medical schools. However, it was not limited to institutions that are located in states where anti-aff irmative action policies have been implemented. Several schools were c onsistently successful (eg, UCLA, Case Western, and Robert Wood Johnso n) or unsuccessful (eg, Texas Tech and Texas A&M) in enrolling African -American students. Recent gains in the enrollment of African-American students are being reversed, particularly at public institutions. imp lications exist, particularly For the health of poor and underserved c ommunities that are more likely to be cared for by such students durin g their careers as physicians.