February 29, 2008

Black History Month: A time to reflect

In April 5, 1968 — the day after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — nine faculty physicians at Harvard Medical School (HMS) began a petition for the increased enrollment of African-American students at the medical school. They were successful, and by the next year applications to HMS from minority students had increased fivefold. This marked a turning point in the history of underrepresented minorities (URMs) at HMS and the MGH. Since then, the MGH has continued to enhance the recruitment, retention and advancement of URM students and professionals.

At the MGH — though records are scarce — it is believed that the first African-American physician was Robert E. Fullilove, MD, who joined the Department of Urology as a graduate assistant in 1940. Six years later, Frances Bonner, MD, joined the Department of Psychiatry as the first African-American female staff physician. Following in the footsteps of these trailblazers, the number of African-American and minority faculty members has steadily increased.

The 1990s were important years for diversity at the MGH. In 1992, the precursors of what would become the Multicultural Affairs Office (MAO) and Association of Multicultural Members of Partners were formed. And, in 1997, current Partners HealthCare President James J. Mongan, MD, who was then MGH president, restructured the Diversity Steering Committee as a management-level task force. With these structures in place, a variety of scholarships, grants, mentorship programs and educational opportunities were created.

Whereas promoting diversity was a moral imperative for those HMS doctors in 1969, today it is recognized as "a strategic priority as well as the right thing to do," says Winfred Williams, MD, co-chair of the MAO Advisory Board. Currently, there are 116 minority faculty members at the MGH, who comprise 4.3 percent of the total; though this number does not yet reflect the demographic diversity of Boston or the country as a whole, it does represent the hospital's progress toward achieving that goal. Training clinicians in providing culturally competent care, building a cosmopolitan practice and reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health care will continue to be key to the MGH's success as it enters its third century.