The November midterms delivered Democrats control of Congress, but winning elections doesn’t rebuild public trust in medicine. That requires something harder: institutional accountability. Medical schools and training programs must decide whether diversity remains a priority or becomes expendable. The answer matters more than politics.
That’s not just my perspective as a physician. It’s informed by my role as president of a safety net hospital, my time as immediate past president of the National Medical Association, and what I witness as a board-certified forensic pathologist. When you spend your career identifying disease and injury at the autopsy table, you see something most people miss: failed health policy doesn’t just disappoint patients. It kills them.
Autopsies reveal disease. They can’t prove why an ambulance arrived late or why a community lacks adequate doctors. But they teach an unforgiving lesson. Decisions made far from the bedside have consequences that reach the morgue. Medical education has to prepare physicians to spot those failures before they become irreversible.
Last July, I testified before Congress at a hearing called “Training Activists, Not Physicians: The Impact of DEI on Medical Schools.” The framing was revealing. The suggestion was that teaching future doctors to recognize bias, navigate language barriers, and understand patients’ lived experiences turns them into activists rather than clinicians. That premise insults everyone involved.
Teaching doctors to care for the full diversity of America doesn’t compromise anatomy, pharmacology, diagnostic reasoning, or clinical judgment. These skills strengthen all three. A physician needs both scientific excellence and the ability to communicate across difference. When I told Congress that diversity doesn’t dilute merit, I meant it plainly: it strengthens it.
The research backs this up. A randomized study from Oakland published in the American Economic Review found that Black men who saw Black physicians were more likely to accept preventive care afterward. That’s not an argument for racial matching in medicine. It’s evidence that representation, communication, and trust shift whether people accept lifesaving treatment. Research also shows Black and Hispanic physicians serve underserved communities at higher rates than their white counterparts.
The National Medical Association was founded in 1895 because Black doctors couldn’t access most of organized medicine. The organization’s history includes major breakthroughs in surgery, blood banking, and public health. Diversity didn’t weaken American medicine. Physicians who were denied opportunity helped build it.
Yet in 2025, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education removed its accreditation standard evaluating diversity programs. The National Medical Association condemned that decision, warning that backing away would limit pathways for qualified Black physicians and compromise patient outcomes.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education followed suit in September, retiring DEI requirements for residency training. Together, these moves signal that diversity is optional when the country needs a stronger, more capable physician workforce.
Accreditation standards aren’t decorative. They dictate what institutions must teach, measure, and improve. When diversity disappears from those requirements, recruiting overlooked talent and retaining diverse faculty becomes easier to abandon when budgets shrink or politics shift.
We need immediate action. The LCME must reinstate enforceable diversity, equity, and inclusion requirements for medical schools. That means meaningful evaluation of outreach, fair admissions, inclusive learning environments, and training to serve underserved patients. The ACGME should restore explicit DEI requirements for teaching hospitals and residency programs, including mission-driven recruitment of diverse residents and faculty, education on health disparities, and transparent reporting of outcomes.
Neither accreditor should impose quotas or lower academic standards. Both should adopt legally defensible, measurable criteria that reward opportunity, rigor, and patient safety. Cultural competence belongs in the curriculum as a core skill, not as a substitute for medical knowledge. Medical schools and hospitals must show not just diversity, but how that diversity improves physician training and patient care.
The midterm elections didn’t directly address medical school accreditation or graduate training standards. But ensuring diverse pipelines into medicine and equal access to quality healthcare should be among the nation’s highest priorities. New lawmakers must push accrediting boards to act now, not wait for another election cycle.
I see what happens when systems fail. The next generation of physicians needs training that prevents those failures. Diversity isn’t a distraction from medical excellence. It’s central to delivering it.
Roger A. Mitchell Jr., MD, is a physician, forensic pathologist, and immediate past president of the National Medical Association.
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