Episode 1: Why is Diversity Important in Academic Medicine?

Narrator:
Hi and welcome to Viewpoint with Dean Mary Klotman from the Duke University School of Medicine. Today we spoke with Dean Klotman and asked her, “Why is diversity important in academic medicine?”

Dean Klotman:
Diversity is really one of our core values of an academic medical center. Traditionally, we think that having a community that is diverse will enhance the way that we look at problems - the way that we approach care delivery, particularly in medicine where diversity enriches our ability to understand those that we take care of.

I have been struck by a really compelling argument put forward by Scott Paige who is at University of Michigan, who has a book coming out called Diversity Bonus. He provides a framework of, not only is it the right thing because we're a diverse society, but really makes a compelling case that whether it's a business argument, or it's a complex problem that you're trying to solve, that if you have a diverse group of thinkers approaching that problem from a different view, that you'll get a better answer. And he had so many examples where that was the case. So there is an economic argument as well.

We're very fortunate in medicine, because we really deal with society and everybody that's within that society, so having providers and educators that reflect that diversity, I think enriches our ability to understand how to provide care.

We might not always understand how those in front of us are thinking, or how they're feeling, but having faculty that might have come from a similar background, or a similar culture, from our patient standpoint, that helps us to really think about what are the barriers to care, how we can improve care delivery. So I think particularly in medicine, we need to reflect those that we care for.

So many of our learners really model their careers by the people in front of them, and having faculty that they identify with, culturally or from similar backgrounds, it really engages our trainees. And it's important that we have faculty that they can identify with. So it enriches our education environment as well.

Narrator:
Viewpoint is a production of the Duke University School of Medicine. Tune in each month for Dean Mary Klotman's thoughts and ideas about important and timely topics and issues related to medical education, science and discovery, and patient care.

For more information, please visit https://medschool.duke.edu/viewpoint