The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion provides overarching guidance to the MD/PhD program. As an ISMMS academic program, the MD/PhD program recognizes that diversity drives excellence. Our program supports trainees through individualized paths in careers as physician-scientists and values the unique characteristics and career paths of each student from recruitment through the student life cycle through graduation. Recruitment and admissions practices are governed by a holistic approach to each applicant as a means to foster a vibrant student body with different life experiences and biomedical expertise and interest as defined in our institutional mission and diversity statement. We commit to providing MD/PhD students with holistic student support to cultivate an inclusive, thriving, and supportive environment that engages, embraces, and values all of our students, faculty, and staff who contribute to building a diverse physician-scientist workforce.
The National MD-PhD Program Outcomes Study released in 2018 by the Association of American Medical Colleges indicated that MD/PhD enrollee diversity by gender, race, and ethnicity still lags behind that of medical schools. This unacceptable truth must change and we commit to doing our part as an MD/PhD program. Therefore, we aim to:
Ensure that our student body reflects the growing diversity of the population.
Identify and disrupt the manifestations of systemic racism in the learning environment which have led to inequities in both healthcare delivery and the practice of research.
Call attention to the critical role physician-scientists play in breaking down barriers and support the creation of equitable healthcare delivery systems, and increasing the enrollment and participation of people of color in clinical trials and in biomedical research studies, and to the impact of race on pathophysiological mechanisms and health outcomes.
Become self-educated on and engage in dialogue among trainees and faculty about the concepts of scientific and systemic racism and bias, to spark action in becoming an antiracist academic program.
The MD/PhD program partners with both the Office for Diversity and Inclusion, the Racism and Bias Initiative, and the various student affinity and social activism groups that contribute to the unique and dynamic culture and build community, educate, and enact change at ISMMS.