US: Diverse medical schools = stronger doctors

Medical students who attend racially and ethnically diverse medical schools say they are better equipped to care for patients in a diverse society, reports a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Led by the University of California, Los Angeles, Higher Education Research Institute, the research is the first to examine the link between medical school diversity and educational benefits, reports Science Daily.

"The effects of a diverse student body have been demonstrated in higher education, but we wanted to see if the results also would apply in medical school education," said senior author LuAnn Wilkerson, senior associate dean of medical education at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

The research team explored whether the proportion of minority students within a medical school made a difference in three outcomes: First, whether students said they felt prepared to care for diverse patient populations; second, their attitudes about access to healthcare; and third, their plans to care for patients in areas that are traditionally underserved by the healthcare system.

Full report on the Science Daily site