Medical Schools as Racialized Organizations: How Race-Neutral Structures Sustain Racial Inequality in Medical Education—a Narrative Review

In 2021, The American Association of Medical Colleges released a framework addressing structural racism in academic medicine, following the significant, nationwide Movement for Black Lives. The first step of this framework is to “begin self-reflection and educating ourselves.” Indeed, ample evidence shows that medical schools have a long history of racially exclusionary practices. Drawing on racialized organizations theory from the field of sociology, we compile and examine scholarship on the role of race and racism in medical training, focusing on disparities in educational and career outcomes, experiences along racial lines in medical training, and long-term implications. From the entrance into medical school through the residency application process, organizational factors such as reliance on standardized tests to predict future success, a hostile learning climate, and racially biased performance metrics negatively impact the careers of trainees of color, particularly those underrepresented in medicine (URiM). Indeed, in addition to structural biases associated with otherwise “objective” metrics, there are racial disparities across subjective outcomes such as the language used in medical trainees’ performance evaluations, even when adjusting for grades and board exam scores. These disadvantages contribute to URIM trainees’ lower odds of matching, steering into less competitive and lucrative specialties, and burnout and attrition from academic careers. Additionally, hostile racial climates and less diverse medical schools negatively influence White trainees’ interest in practicing in underserved communities, disproportionally racial and ethnic minorities. Trainees’ mental health suffers along the way, as do medical schools’ recruitment, retention, diversity, and inclusion efforts. Evidence shows that seemingly race-neutral processes and structures within medical education, in conjunction with individuals’ biases and interpersonal discrimination, may reproduce and sustain racial inequality among medical trainees. Medical schools whose goals include training a more diverse physician workforce towards addressing racial health disparities require a new playbook.