How DEI ideology is poisoning every aspect of the medical profession
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) were not controversial words 50 years ago. They are today because they have become a Trojan Horse for a sinister set of political goals. Anyone with experience in large organizations or with minimal exposure to the internet knows what I’m talking about. The agenda has been pushed over the last 5-10 years with increasing pressure, and enormous effect. Employers and schools now require diversity statements with applications. States are requiring minority representation on boards. Implicit bias training has become commonplace in orientations.
No profession is safe from this new ideology, including medicine. In fact, medicine might be especially susceptible. For example, there is a movement to remove identifying factors from patient histories, even when factors like sex, race, age, and ethnicity play a critical role in certain diagnoses. It is a simple fact that some illnesses are more common in certain people. Sickle cell anemia and sarcoidosis, for example, are more common in African Americans. Asians are at much higher risk of gastric cancer than the general population in the USA. Tay-Sachs disease is more common in Ashkenazi Jews. Information like this is useful when it comes to landing a diagnosis. DEI practitioners want to see it thrown away.
Take Columbia University Medical School’s 2021 White Coat Ceremony, where instead of reciting the traditional Hippocratic Oath, the class wrote their own oath:
“We also recognize the acts and systems of oppression affected in the name of medicine. We take this oath of service to begin building a future grounded in truth, restoration and equity, to fulfill medicine’s capacity to liberate […] I promise to critically examine the systems and experiences that impact every person’s health and ability to receive care […] I promise to self-reflect diligently, to confront unconscious prejudices, and develop the skills, knowledge and character necessary to engender an inclusive equitable field of medicine.”
DEI is ubiquitous in the university system. Physicians spend 4 years in undergraduate, 4 years in medical school, and at least 3 years in residency. That’s a minimum of 11 years under the thumb of DEI. The necessity to earn high grades forces ideological outcasts to conform. If they don’t, they risk a bad grade, bad interview, or bad application which could limit their future prospects. The result is that DEI has taken over medicine, destroying the field in four major ways: conformity, lack of critical thinking, low standards, and poor work ethic.
***
Becoming a physician used to be an enormous achievement. It required intelligence, dedication, hard work, and an ability to delay gratification. I remember hearing stories from my family members (also physicians) about working over 100 hours a week during residency. The technology wasn’t as good so they had to take notes by hand and print copies for the class. They were paid very low wages which necessitated excessive moonlighting to earn money.
None of that happens nowadays. Schools make passing as easy as possible. Students who don’t pass the Step exams make the school look bad to potential applicants. Same goes for students who fail, which means they very rarely fail students. Residency hours are capped at 80 per week. This is so closely monitored that programs don’t dare push the limits. Moonlighting is still an option, but isn’t necessary. Residents earn anywhere between $45,000 and $70,000 in their first year of work with increases every year.
Some of these reforms are a good thing. Nobody wants a physician who hasn’t slept in 24 hours treating them. However, the duration and design of college and medical school gives doctors a warped view of reality. Most physicians come out of high school straight into college and never work a normal job. Then they go straight into medical school where it’s impossible or not permitted to work a job. When they enter residency and especially when they enter the field on their own, they experience real work and responsibilities for the first time in their lives. This is a reality because of the lobbying and power accumulation by physician and hospital credentialing agencies. Violating their mandates means risking individual and hospital licenses.
There’s also a disincentive towards different viewpoints in medical school, and medicine generally. Medicine is a tight-knit community, where heterodox opinions makes you an outsider. One email from a school administrator to a program director could flatten your chances of landing your dream residency. If you don’t conform to the system, the system rejects you. You are a headache, a hassle, a troublemaker. This goes for both DEI/CRT ideology, and mainstream thought in the medical field. If you don’t follow the narrative and therapies approved by the CDC, FDA, WHO, and other agencies, your livelihood is at risk. Hospitals don’t want the headaches, malpractice insurers don’t want the lawsuits, and state licensing boards are always looking for some way to stay relevant.
The lack of critical thinking ability in our young people goes beyond medicine. Public schools have no incentive to teach children critical thinking. It’s easier to repeat the same lesson plan while collecting a paycheck. That problem gets worse in college. You might think students learn critical thinking in medical school – you’d be wrong. Medical students and residents are taught how to memorize facts and follow algorithms. This is a necessity because of the board exams students are required to pass in order to obtain a license. Modern medicine is so algorithmic, there are apps and programs that physicians use to organize their practice. UpToDate is the best known and is probably in the pocket of every physician in your local hospital.
Obviously a compliant population who is willing to toe the line without questions is favorable to those in power. Big Pharma has no problem getting these doctors to stay in line and push their pills because they are literally written into the recommendations. Companies make millions every year selling Continuing Education Unit (CEU) courses and conferences to physicians.
Falling standards are not exclusive to medicine. Education in general is lowering the bar. Colleges are no longer requiring the SAT or ACT for entry. Medical schools are dropping the MCAT requirement. And in recent years the USMLE has hopped aboard the mediocrity train, no longer giving medical students scores on the USMLE Step 1 Exam.
Step 1 has historically been used as a sorting mechanism. If you scored well you could apply to whatever specialty you wanted. If you scored really well, you could apply to top-tier residencies. Those who scored lower were stuck in Family Medicine and Pediatrics. But in the last few years, the Step 1 Exam has become Pass/Fail. This makes it easier for bad test takers to apply for prestigious residencies. They also removed the USMLE Step 2 CS Exam, which tested students’ hands-on skills and there is now a movement towards making the Step 2 and Step 3 Exams Pass/Fail which would make it very difficult to differentiate the worst students from the best. What would they have to rely on instead? Extracurriculars, personal statements, and of course, DEI criteria.
***
The rot within modern medicine runs deep. Ultimately though, it starts with the American Medical Association (AMA). This is the preeminent physician lobbying organization that has existed for over 175 years. In 1904 the AMA created the Council on Medical Education (CME). The goal of the CME was to provide structure and standardization to American medical education. The CME and Carnegie Foundation hired Abraham Flexner to survey all the existing medical schools in the country and published his findings in 1910 known as the Flexner Report. This report cut the number of schools dramatically. It effectively eliminated entire fields like homeopathy, eclectic medicine, and osteopathy. Every medical school was shoved under the same umbrella, allopathic medicine.
The AMA would go on to create various accreditation agencies which write the rules for residencies, fellowships, and medical schools. They were also the founders of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals, which is intended to hold all hospitals to the same standard. The AMA has always been a powerhouse in terms of lobbying. They donate to both sides of the political aisle and have a government-enforced monopoly on the education and training of every doctor in the country. Nonetheless, some of the worst Public Health programs in history have been pushed and promoted by the AMA. Fluoride in the drinking water (1951), restricting the number of physicians being trained (1997), and support for the Affordable Care Act (2009). A quick glance at their website reveals they are infested with the same DEI ideology as the university system.
After the last 3 years, it should be clear that modern medicine is broken. Physicians cheered on the destruction of bodily autonomy at the behest of the government, public health bureaucrats, and Big Pharma. Despite zero evidence for the effectiveness of lockdowns, masking, and social distancing, the medical community marked in lockstep in support.
I don’t care if my colleagues are black, white, male, female, tall, short, or whatever so long as they understand human anatomy and physiology, rather than social justice. I want intelligent doctors who are capable of free and independent thought, and who are willing to stand up for their patients when they know something is wrong. What they should know is that if we don’t excise this Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion cancer it will be the death knell for modern medicine in America.
Doc Anarchy is a writer and physician. He writes on docanarchy.substack.com.
