University of Utah School of Medicine

The Anti-Racism Commission recommended that, "Within one year, require a centralized implicit bias training for all University of Utah School of Medicine students, residents, faculty, and staff. This training must include opportunities for small group discussion and simulation scenarios to practice bias interventions. This training will be required a minimum of once per academic year."

The school's Pediatrics department issued an update on its diversity and inclusion efforts and stated that "all faculty and staff participate in an online or in-person training," and "The training addresses relevant laws and best practices that promote equal opportunity, information about implicit bias, as well as the basics of the University’s Nondiscrimination Policies." In addition. "Our fellowship program will work with the Pediatric Core Residency Program in their upcoming faculty development efforts which will address implicit bias, microaggressions, and generational differences in education."

The school's Surgery Department offers a bias training course titled "Understanding Implicit Bias in SOM/Residency Processes."

The school's OB/GYN department published a description of "Project Ariise" which will "create an interprofessional learning program that aims to improve patient care by training faculty, residents, fellows, and students to recognize their bias and repair relationships through respectful communication and dialogue. By leveraging the power of simulation and experiential learning, the project will equip learners to address the multilayered dimensions of implicit bias and how it affects maternal health care quality and outcomes."

The Anti-Racism Commission recommended that, "Within one year, increase the number and frequency of lectures and discussions on anti-racism in medicine. Particularly, medical students should understanding the history of racism in medicine, and should provide evidence of racially tied health outcomes in medicine today."

The Anti-Racism Commission recommended that, "Within one year, include specific objectives in pre-clinical and clinical curriculum that align with Community Engaged Learning and Health Equity, and Inclusion domain expert instruction. Develop testable objectives aligned to lectures that address anti-racism content. This content should be assessed in quizzes, tests, OSCEs, and other assessments written in-house."

The Anti-Racism Commission recommended that, "Within one year, strengthen the program objectives...to include knowledge of social determinants of health such as race and socioeconomic status."

The school announced, "We are seeing gains in our curriculum. New experts are being hired in the areas of community engagement and social determinants of health. There is also an active recruitment effort to include more BIPOC voices on the curriculum committee."

The school's Department of Pediatrics issued an update on its diversity and inclusion initiatives including the following: "Collaborated on the Longitudinal Social Medicine Curriculum to educate about racism as a current and centuries-old public health crisis," and "Supported the Longitudinal Cultivating Compassionate Community Curriculum to provide space and support for processing the psychological impacts of racism, and empowering our residency community to reflect and change together." 

The Anti-Racism Commission recommended that the school work towards "being able to operationalize" the goal of ending "relationship with local law enforcement, including the University of Utah Police Department."

The Anti-Racism Commission recommended that the school work towards "being able to operationalize" the goal "with the chief safety officer" of eliminating "the budget for campus policing, and reallocate those funds to programs supporting BIPOC." The commission further said, "The pilot program is a first step in demonstrating effective ways to reallocate funds for alternative safety activities."

The school linked to an "Anti-racism resources for white people" document, which includes Ibram X. Kendi's "How to Be an Antiracist."

The University of Utah School of Medicine's the Women in Health, Medicine, & Science (WiHMS) endeavors to promote faculty development, mentoring, and advocacy of women faculty to create a climate that fosters the success of all faculty, regardless of gender.

The School of Medicine has an IDEALS (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Anti-Racism Leadership Strategies) Committee.

The school created an "Anti-Racism Commission." According to the school, "The recommendations encompass four major domains: 1) Law enforcement; 2) Admissions; 3) Support for Black, Indigenous, and/or Persons of Color; and 4) Curriculum. The first ARC Steering Committee meeting was held on June 25, 2020 and created four subcommittees to address specific recommendations. The final recommendations by the ARC Steering Committee and Subcommittees were presented at the SOM Executive Committee meeting on December 9, 2020 and approved by the group."

The Anti-Racism Commission recommended that the school, "Create an independent committee to research significant benefactors who supported causes" such as "eugenics or other white supremacists causes," as well as "weapons manufacturing, exploitation of low-wage workers, funding of racist political causes, and employment discrimination." The commission recommended that, "Benefactors identified who supported these causes should either have their names removed or other documentation that exposes the benefactor's racist history in addition to a statement that the UUSOM condemns the participation in these racist causes should be publicized." Furthermore, "This committee should also recognize and publicize prior donors who showed a commitment to antiracism and the UUSOM will actively solicit new donors who demonstrate commitment to antiracism."

The Office of Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion hired a new officer to "lead the implementation phase of the ARC recommendations."

The school announced, "Our first step is to initiate anti-racism audits in every academic and administrative unit at U of U Health, with the goal of eliminating any practice that appears to permit systemic racism. We will also judge the systems by their outcomes, not their intentions. We will begin by adopting and living the anti-racist clarion call: Black Lives Matter."

The school announced, "Additionally, we are creating an assistant dean for Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the School of Medicine to focus on faculty and trainees, and be an integral part of the Health Sciences Equity, Diversity & Inclusion leadership team. In parallel, University of Utah Health Hospitals and Clinics is creating a new position, Senior Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, to further guide and strengthen our collective efforts."

The school has an Office of Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

The school posted on its Facebook page, "Last Wednesday, Dr. Good met with student leaders from the SOM, from White Coats 4 Black Lives, and from the PA program to discuss initial actions including an Anti-Racism Commission and scholarship funds dedicated to underrepresented students within the School of Medicine."

Black Patient Voices is a team of Black patients at the University of Utah who share their experiences facing racial health disparities in the United States. The group calls to "consciously dismantle the forces that cause racial health disparities."

The mission of MEDiversity Week is to highlight the EDI work within University of Utah Health, while addressing health care disparities, offering solutions for the training of its current and future providers, and hosting discussions on how to continually advocate for equity and inclusion in the community's daily personal and professional lives.

On February 8, 2023, the University of Utah hosted its second Day of Collective Action. This day was designed to offer its community an opportunity to "learn, reflect, and find ways" to "end and dismantle all forms of discrimination at the U." Day of Collective Action is a Presidential initiative that was launched in 2022 by the Presidential Commission on Equity and Belonging.