Cumc Wins Grant To Support Diversity In Medical And Dental Education

Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and School of Dental and Oral Surgery to Host Summer Education Program For Minority Undergraduates

NEW YORK, NY, December 19, 2005 - Two schools at Columbia University Medical Center received an important boost in their continuing efforts to expand the racial diversity of the health care workforce. Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S) and School of Dental and Oral Surgery (SDOS) have been selected by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as sites for the 2006 Summer Medical and Dental Education Program. The program provides a free, six-week curriculum to prepare minority undergraduate students for the academic, clinical and cultural experience of medical and dental school.

“Encouraging diversity in the medical and dental community is a top priority at Columbia University Medical Center,” said Gerald D. Fischbach, M.D., executive vice president of Columbia University Medical Center. “Minority health professionals enrich the education experience of all students and the faculty who teach them. They also are likely to serve an important function in addressing minority health disparities.”

A collaboration between the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Dental Education Association, the program aims to create a more diverse medical and dental workforce and help reduce disparities in access to health care. Columbia P&S has participated in the program for the last five years, and Columbia SDOS was one of two pilot sites for the dental program, which fully launches in 2006.

Columbia will receive $300,000 per year for four years to support the program, which focuses on the basic sciences, learning skills seminars, exposure to medical and dental clinics, exploration of the medical and dental professions, financial planning workshops, and individualized educational plans to help students achieve their goals. The students will come either from racial and ethnic groups that historically have been underrepresented in medicine and dentistry, economically disadvantaged backgrounds, or parts of the country (such as rural areas) where residents historically have been underrepresented in medicine and dentistry.

Columbia has a long tradition of striving for greater diversity in medical education. Columbia P&S established the nation’s first office of diversity and minority affairs in 1968 to assist with recruiting, counseling and nurturing minority students as well as fostering diversity among students and faculty today. Today that office is led by Hilda Hutcherson, M.D., associate dean for diversity at Columbia P&S.

“I've given students my personal cell phone number and my home phone number. I tell my own kids, 'the students are my children, too,'" she said.

Dr. Hutcherson’s efforts have paid off. Just four years ago Columbia’s minority med school enrollment was eight percent, but has now increased to 22 percent for the class that started this fall.

In 2003, Columbia was chosen as one of two dental pilot program sites because, in addition to hosting the medical summer program, it was also the national office for another Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded organization – “Pipeline, Profession, and Practice: Community Based Dental Education,” which addresses oral disease in poor children, the elderly and minorities.

Dr. Dennis Mitchell, assistant dean for diversity and multicultural affairs and director of community-based education at the School of Dental and Oral Surgery, led the dental school’s pilot summer program.

“The dental summer pilot program was a huge success at Columbia, and we’re thrilled that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has officially expanded the program to include dental schools from across the country,” he said. “Six former participants in our pilot program are now enrolled at Columbia SDOS, and we look forward to many more.”

The racial disparity in U.S. dental schools is even more pronounced than in medical schools. Outside the three predominantly minority dental schools (Howard, Meharry, and University of Puerto Rico, which graduate 75 percent of the country’s minority dentists) fewer than three percent of dental graduates are minorities.

The Summer Medical and Dental Education Program is just one of many steps Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) is taking to encourage minority students to pursue careers in the health sciences, including a program that brings minority high school students to CUMC each fall to learn chemistry, biology, neuroscience and other science and math subjects from Columbia medical and dental students. The Columbia students also serve as mentors to encourage the students to work toward pursuing medical careers.

The summer programs will accept student applications beginning in December 2005. Participants will arrive on campuses in the summer of 2006.

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Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in pre-clinical and clinical research, in medical and health sciences education, and in patient care. The medical center trains future leaders in health care and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, nurses, dentists, and public health professionals at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, the School of Dental & Oral Surgery, the School of Nursing, the Mailman School of Public Health, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Medical Center researchers are leading the discovery of novel therapies and advances to address a wide range of health conditions. http://www.cumc.columbia.edu

The Association of American Medical Colleges is a nonprofit association representing all 125 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 68 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and 94 academic and scientific societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC represents 109,000 faculty members, 67,000 medical students, and 104,000 resident physicians. Additional information about the AAMC and U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at www.aamc.org/newsroom.

The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) is the leading national organization for dental education. Its members include all U.S. and Canadian dental schools, advanced dental education programs, allied dental education programs, corporations, faculty, and students. The mission of ADEA is to lead individuals and institutions of the dental education community to address contemporary issues influencing education, research, and the delivery of oral health care for the health of the public. ADEA’s activities encompass a wide range of research, advocacy, faculty development, meetings, and communications, as well as the dental school admissions services AADSAS and PASS and the Journal of Dental Education.

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AADSAS, AAMC, ADEA, Columbia University