Applicant Flow Data

Abstract

A diverse physician workforce is important for addressing health disparities for underserved populations and for fostering stronger teams. 1,2 However, the physician workforce continues to have minority doctors underrepresented relative to their proportions in the general population and the local communities they serve. 3,4 This inequity is likely a result of upstream factors throughout all stages of medical education, including historical and ongoing structural, institutional, and interpersonal racism. 5,6 Organizations that wish to advance physician workforce diversity should understand trends in underrepresented medicine (URM) candidates applying and being hired for positions. As institutions devote more time and resources to diversifying their workforce, attention must be paid to the nature and quality of data collected to better understand and target staff diversification efforts. A key component of this strategy is obtaining applicant flow data.

Monitoring Diversity in Faculty Using Applicant Flow Data

“…We applaud Dr Adaugo Amobi’s1 commentary in this issue of Medical Care regarding physician workforce diversity, the importance of systems to track physician hiring practices in aggregate and over time, and the use of these data to inform efforts to improve workforce diversity.…”