Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
A Focus On The Education Of Future Medical Staff As Affirmative Action Ends
The New York Times: How Colleges Admissions Might Diversify Without Affirmative Action
For the head of admissions at a medical school, Dr. Mark Henderson is pretty blunt when sizing up the profession. “Mostly rich kids get to go to medical school,” he said. In his role at the medical school at the University of California, Davis, Dr. Henderson has tried to change that, developing an unorthodox tool to evaluate applicants: the socioeconomic disadvantage scale, or S.E.D. (Saul, 7/2)
Stat: What Affirmative Action's End Means To A Medical Student
When the U.S. Supreme Court released its landmark ruling overturning the use of race-conscious college admissions, LaShyra Nolen was on clinical rotation. For Nolen, a fourth-year medical student at Harvard Medical School, the news sent a chill down her spine even though she had been anticipating it. “It felt very lonely,” said Nolen, who is Black and the first in her family to get a bachelors of science degree and attend medical school. The court’s decision effectively ends affirmative action at U.S. colleges and universities. Many medical education leaders view the ruling as a seismic shift in the American higher education landscape. (Tsanni, 7/3)
Stat: After Affirmative Action Ruling, Medical Educators Look To 'Holistic Review'
After having a day to read through the Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action, some medical school and educational leaders are more hopeful that a path exists for them to diversify future classes and the health care workforce as they scramble to understand its impact on the next admissions cycle and the class of 2024. Several told STAT they saw the court’s ruling as explicitly endorsing the use of “holistic review,” a tool used increasingly by medical, dental, and nursing schools and other institutions to build classes that better reflect the demographics of the nation. For years, medical schools have been seeking to train physicians who better resemble the patients they treat — a key part of the effort to reduce health disparities. (McFarling, 6/30)
On other health industry staffing matters —
Axios: Staffing Standard Could Boost Nursing Home Unionization Efforts
A looming national staffing mandate for nursing homes could open the door for more labor organizing in a sector where a low proportion of workers are covered by union contracts. Higher pay, better benefits and baseline staff-to-patient ratios could lure more people to a workforce that was hollowed out during the pandemic, organizers say. (Dreher, 7/5)
Modern Healthcare: Telehealth, Staffing Concern Health Clients: Lawyers
The healthcare industry has been thrown numerous curveballs over the past year, from an unprecedented Supreme Court decision regarding access to abortion care nearly a year ago to the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency last month—along with a rocky economy and staffing shortages. In response to the uncertainty, lawyers working with health systems, nursing homes, digital health startups and provider groups have seen the demand for certain services spike. (Berryman, 6/30)
