University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

The Medical Scientist Training Program staff and students "attend outreach conferences to network with and recruit students from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds." Regarding admissions, the program uses "a holistic application review." Stating, "While we understand that the diversity of our program does not reflect the diversity of our Rochester community, we are working towards mirroring our program with our community."

Family Medicine Residency established "structured interviews" because "virtually every step of the educational process" and "key components of residency applications" are subject to implicit bias, especially for "people of color and people who identify as female."

URMC states that "aggressive efforts" to "diversify physician and nursing workforces within the Department of Medicine and the Medical Center" are underway. It continues by stating that the Medicine Residency and the Department of Medicine are "committed to being a safe space and creating a safe and inclusive environment for all residents all of the time."

The school's Office of Equity and Inclusion offers Diversity Education Training, including "Theater for Healthcare Equity," "Search Committee Unconscious Bias Training," and a "Restorative Circle." It also hosts the Diversity Seminar Series which brings in "nationally recognized speakers each year to address critical topics related to diversity and inclusion in academic medicine."

The school's Pediatrics Residency Program has incorporated Diversity and Inclusion training into its program including: "education about bias in medicine: all members of our program are required to take implicit bias and microaggression training" and "Empower our trainees and staff to be active bystanders: members of our program receive training on how to respond to witnessed microaggressions, implicit or explicit racism, and/or intolerant language or behavior and are encouraged to report the instances."

On February 8, 2023, the Office of Equity and Inclusion partnered with the Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics, Paul M. Schyve, MD Center for Bioethics, and the Office of Alumni Relations and Constituent Engagement to host a four-part training series titled "Anatomy of Hate Grand Rounds 2023" to examine hateful rhetoric targeting racial, ethnic, and religious groups and inspire its community to stand in solidarity against it.

The Internal Medicine Residency Program has "dedicated bystander training" for all medicine residents and core general medicine faculty. 

The URMC Medical Scientist Training Program is "working on an NIH-funded grant supplement to develop an effective mentoring and faculty development strategy for MD/PhD mentors, which will include training in mentorship, bias, and anti-racism."

To achieve its "Nurture a Respectful Learning and Work Environment" objective, the school will "Develop UR anti-racism statement" and "Integrate equity and inclusion into curricula." The school said that "Training through DEI framework of restorative justice, using "Theater of the Oppressed" as a methodology for interactive group training and one-on-one coaching" is "In Progress."

The Dean of the School of Medicine & Dentistry said that officials strongly supported protesters' goals to "increase student diversity across the school, to strengthen academic and social support for underrepresented students, and to integrate anti-racism education into our curricula. As part of our anti-racism plan, they will form committees representing faculty, staff, and students to achieve clear, measurable progress in each of these areas."

The school's Pediatrics Residency Program created the "Equity Curriculum" and stated, "we are incorporating topics that have not historically been incorporated into medical education. These topics include, but are not limited to racism, implicit bias, trauma-informed care, gender affirming care, care for the LGBTQIA+ community and lifestyle medicine in resource poor settings." In addition, "this curriculum will integrate these topics into the current standard curriculum to further emphasize how integral these parts are to all aspects of medical care."

The Internal Medicine Residency Program states that DEI is interwoven into its curriculum, including sessions that address "the social determinants of health, health disparities, and health equity." It also says that educational conferences "dedicated to critical DEI topics" are "delivered at resident educational conferences and Department of Medicine Grand Rounds."

In 2023, the school introduced "program diversity & inclusion statements" on program websites and "100% of course syllabi for newly-created courses."

The Genetic Counseling Degree curriculum has integrated "diversity and inclusion topics as appropriate into all courses."

The URMC 2020-25 Equity & Anti-Racism Action Plan states that URMC will ensure "policies and practices adhere to equity and inclusion principles." In 2023, it established "a visible and streamlined reporting process that provides confidential, timely, fair, and complete investigation and resolution when policies are breached."

To achieve its "Build an Anti-Racism Infrastructure" objective, the school said it will "Build diversity and inclusion competency and accountability among leadership." The school announced, "Senior leaders receive anti-racism training, and focused help on recruitment/retention strategies." The school also said that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) was recently "included in performance reviews and CVs for faculty."

The Dean announced, "A priority I am pushing for is to ensure that search committees for leadership positions include advocates for diversity, and that all committee members for these searches receive mandatory anti-bias training."

The Office of Academic Affairs said, "For faculty with academic appointments being considered for promotion to senior ranks (i.e., Associate Professor or Professor), a self-assessment of DEI now may be provided alongside the self-assessments of teaching and (as applicable) clinical or scholarship/ research. Initially the DEI self-assessment is optional, so we can learn how to help faculty structure this to be of maximum usefulness, but we expect to make it required in the near future."

The Office of Academic Affairs said, "The faculty recruitment best practices toolkit provides a number of methods to improve the size and quality of the candidate pool and to standardize the assessment of these candidates in line with the experience, attributes, skill sets, and accomplishments desired by the hiring department. The toolkit also includes guidance regarding a DEI statement, now required of all faculty candidates."

The admissions committee for the Medical Scientist Training Program "is trained to help address implicit bias in interviewing and application review."

Implicit bias training is required for all Medicine Faculty and there is "a DEI book club for core faculty." Readings and discussion include, How to Be an Antiracist, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, and White Fragility.

The URMC 2020-25 Equity & Anti-Racism Action Plan has a goal to "develop and sustain an infrastructure to support equity, diversity and inclusion." To achieve this goal, the school established "training infrastructure," which included an "Associate Director and 30 staff certified to train equity, diversity and inclusion topics." The school has also dedicated to "active diversity and inclusion work" which is "explicitly factored into/valued in senior leadership/chairs/faculty performance evaluations, reappointments, promotion and the tenure process."

According to the Anti-Racism 10-Year Action Plan 2023 Updates, "100% of program leadership, faculty, staff, and students within URMC/UR will complete anti-racism training." Furthermore, program leadership must "complete at least 4 hours per year of continuing training/coursework related to DEI principles and strategies."

The Internal Medicine Residency Program reports that residency leadership is involved in "formal inclusiveness leadership training." They are also involved in the "Medical Center Cultural Competency Committee" and the "Hospital Medicine Division IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Advocacy) Committee."

The school has a "White Coats for Black Lives" chapter. The group seeks to "call attention to racism and police brutality as public health issues."

To achieve its "Engage in Equitable Health Care" goal, the school will "Establish URMC as a national leader in health equity research and education," "Enhance research and education related to health and health care equity that includes local and national/international investigators," "Ensure health equity research informs URMC senior leadership and URMC clinical quality improvement," and "Provide support to schools and clinical departments to implement health equity education."

The Department of Urology offers a diversity scholarship. The program encourages students "who are from backgrounds that are underrepresented in Urology and Medicine (African-Americans, Women, Latinx, Indigenous Americans, and others)" to apply and "experience all UR Medicine has to offer." The scholarship grant is $2,000.

The Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) is "designed to encourage students from populations underrepresented in science and medicine who hold a recent baccalaureate degree in the biomedically relevant sciences, to pursue a research doctorate." Students accepted into the program receive a stipend and $1,000 for re-location.

The Visiting Clerkship Program is available for applicants who have a commitment "to improving the health status of diverse patient populations via patient care, research, and/or teaching." Accepted final-year medical students receive mentoring and "up to $3,000 funding for travel and housing reimbursement."

Several departments offer diversity scholarships for "underrepresented populations," including the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and the MS Medical Pharmacology Program.

The Dean of the School of Medicine & Dentistry said, "In response to mass shootings and gun violence that have increasingly threatened schools and other public spaces, I supported the decision to arm the Public Safety officers who are responsible for protecting staff members, patients, and the public in our Level 1 trauma center. I also support and will advocate for additional anti-racism training of Public Safety officers."

The Office for Equity and Inclusion provided "Anti-Racist Resources," including Ibram X. Kendi's "How to Be an Antiracist" and Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility."

On June 1, 2023, the University of Rochester Medical Center announced that it formed a Youth Advisory Board to promote health equity. Local high school students would join its Youth Advisory Board and the board members would meet with URMC health equity researchers to provide insight into issues facing children and teens in the Greater Rochester area.

On April 10, the Office of Health Equity Research held its inaugural Strategic Planning Retreat, featuring a keynote address titled "Reducing Racial Inequities in Health: The Fierce Urgency of Now" by the internationally renowned social scientist Dr. David R. Williams of Harvard University.

The Graduate Medical Education program engages in "active recruitment of diverse faculty and university personnel" and "mentoring and networking programs for diverse faculty to enhance both recruitment and retention."

The school has an "Association of Minority Residents & Fellows (AMRF)" which was created to be a safe space for underrepresented minorities in medicine. The community seeks to "create a sense of belonging, feel heard, seek and provide mentorship, and address structural racism including experiences of implicit bias and microaggression in the healthcare system." The AMRF also participated in a BLM protest.

The school has repurposed one of its spaces as a "multi-cultural learner space."

The school has an Office of Equity and Inclusion.

On June 20, 2023, the University of Rochester announced that Adrienne Morgan, the current senior associate dean for equity and inclusion at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, has been named vice president for equity and inclusion and Richard Feldman Chief Diversity Officer.

The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) announced in summer 2022 that Dr. Traci Terrance, Senior Instructor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Family Medicine, would be serving as the faculty leader who is coordinating the Equity and Anti-Racism efforts in the Department of Family Medicine.

The Medical Center's Office of Equity and Inclusion commemorated Juneteenth on June 15, 2023. Free self-care services and ice cream were offered to faculty, staff, and students. On June 19, Juneteenth was also recognized as an official university holiday, following the lead of institutions such as Cornell and Harvard.

The Office of Equity and Inclusion recognized 2023 Black History Month with new programming and an institution-wide anti-racism movement called #LivetheSix, named after these six words: Stop Hate, End Racism, and Choose L.O.V.E. (Live Our Values Everywhere). #LivetheSix was inspired by the Buffalo Bills football team’s “Choose Love” fundraising campaign which started after 10 people were killed at a supermarket in 2022 by a shooter who targeted the store because of its proximity to a predominantly Black neighborhood. New DEI-related trainings would be implemented as part of the #LivetheSix campaign.

On June 30, 2023, the school signed on to the Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY) statement in response to the Supreme Court's decision regarding race-conscious admission policies, which stated the following: "The consortium of the 17 medical schools of New York State, is profoundly concerned that the United State Supreme Court decisions in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina will diminish opportunities for talented students pursuing careers in medicine and science. These decisions reject a longstanding precedent that recognized the compelling interest of ensuring diversity in higher education and may undermine recent advances to address inequities in medical education and research."

On June 30, 2023, the school's Medical Center published its response to the Supreme Court's decision regarding race-conscious admission policies which stated the following: "We are deeply disheartened by yesterday’s Supreme Court decision on the validity of race or ethnicity criteria in university admissions. The potential effect on our nation’s higher education system is daunting and its implications could be particularly devastating for academic medicine and our education, patient care and research missions."