Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
‘Meeting the Moment’ through Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
One of our four strategic priorities is to advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) throughout every aspect of the College as a quality imperative. Our commitment to enhance DEI in our membership, leadership, operations, and all activities is a journey toward full ACP cultural integration, to help improve global health equity. ACP will continue to build, collaborate and invest in our DEI commitment through existing programs such as a national grant program to stimulate and fund DEI initiatives in internal medicine training and care environments, and through continued partnership with the DEI Shift podcast to spark discussions to improve practice environments and expand insights regarding emerging DEI concepts.
Over the past year, ACP further elevated its commitment to move DEI from concept to action, through ongoing collaborations, advancing equity initiatives, advocating for public policy reform in health and health care, and within our own organization, including:
Increase Diversity of Governance, Membership and Staff
- Conducting an assessment of ACP’s governance and committee structures and developing DEI tools and new approaches to support ACP’s appointments processes to ensure effective diversity within our committees, reviewers, and even speaking opportunities.
- Development and incorporation of an anti-harassment policy and reporting process, including defining professional behavior at ACP meetings and events; integrating DEI and implicit bias training for our membership, governance, and staff, into educational efforts, and expanded DEI-focused programming for meetings and events.
- Establishment of an International Medical Graduate Task Force to enhance inclusion of perspectives from our IMG members, and development of recommendations for improving conditions for IMGs seeking to train and/or practice in the U.S.
- Initiated enhanced partnerships and collaborations with professional associations committed to advancing DEI, such as the National Medical Association; the National Hispanic Medical Association; the Asian American Pacific Islander Equity Alliance; the GLMA (Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ equality); the American Women’s Medical Association; the Council for Medical Specialty Societies; the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and Equity Matters.
- Design and implementation of a summer internship program at ACP designed to inspire college students from diverse background to pursue careers in medicine and/or health care.
Increase Inclusion
- Developed speaker diversity and inclusion principles.
- Revised national award and Mastership descriptions to remove biased language and potential barriers to nominations.
- Integrated DEI and implicit bias training into governance and committees.
- During ACP’s Internal Medicine Meeting 2022, helped advance our vision to contribute to the diversity pipeline for medicine by collaborating with the Chicago Scholars Foundation, which identifies and sponsors academically ambitious first-generation college students.
- Supported expansion of Chapter-level DEI/Women in Medicine committees and programming.
Expand Equity Initiatives
- Invested in and collaborated with AMA’s Health2047, to stimulate development of innovative physician advised health equity solutions through entrepreneurship.
- Co-sponsored a grant with the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the ABIM Foundation, the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation to award funding to several recipients to support projects that incorporate DEI into the fabric of internal medicine education and training, promote trust and health equity, and benefit both medical professionals and the diverse patients they serve.
- Advocated for all populations who are underserved and underrepresented, including gender equity, and call for eliminating inequities in compensation, promoting career advancement, and addressing the unique challenges female physicians often face throughout their careers.
- Supported LGBTQ+ and transgender rights in healthcare, including opposing governmental interference in the patient-physician relationship that prevents physicians from providing their patients with evidence-based medical services.
Previous Section
${prev-page}
Next Section
${next-page}