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Introduction Biological race, the fallacy that racial health disparities reflect differences in human biology, exerts undue influence on medicine. Interventions that teach against this myth are largely absent from required medical curricula. Here, we describe and present student and facilitator evaluations of an educational intervention, organised around Dorothy Roberts' book Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re‐Create Race in the Twenty‐First Century that included a discussion of preselected chapters from Fatal Invention, case studies illustrating strategies to prevent the misuse of race in medicine and a question‐and‐answer session with Dorothy Roberts. Methods Online feedback surveys were distributed to students and facilitators to capture their general perceptions of the session, how well it satisfied its objectives and the pre‐session training materials provided to facilitators. Quantitative measures were analysed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative responses were evaluated using thematic analysis. Results Student and facilitator surveys garnered response rates of 59.8% (61/102) and 75% (30/40), respectively, and most expressed satisfaction with the session. Students felt more prepared to address the misuse of race in clinical contexts than in pre‐clinical contexts (90.16% vs. 77.05%) and among peers than among superiors (95.08% vs. 72.13%) (p < 0.05). Some students (31.15%) felt that their small group facilitators were unprepared to address microaggressions. Discussion Our survey responses suggest that this intervention was effective in teaching against biological racism and equipped students with tools to address the misuse of race, particularly in clinical contexts. Future iterations should highlight strategies to confront biological racism in pre‐clinical contexts and among superiors.

Introduction Almajirai are male children in Northern Nigeria and Southern Niger who study Islam in the almajiranci system. Almajiranci has been associated with non-participation in formal education, abuse, poverty, and underdevelopment. However, the peer-reviewed literature around health among almajirai remains limited. We conduct a scoping review around almajiri health to synthesize evidence for health problems, draw links between findings, identify research gaps, indicate areas for intervention, and assess participatory approaches in this literature. Methods We searched the academic literature for articles concerning almajiri heath using a framework integrating the biopsychosocial and socio-ecological models of health. We included articles in English and French published between 2000 and 2022. For each study we collected information regarding authorship, study year and location(s), study design and aims, sample characteristics, findings, and almajiri participation in research design, execution, interpretation and dissemination. Results Of 1,944 studies, 17 were found relevant for data extraction. These included 14 cross-sectional studies, 2 descriptive articles, and one case-control study. All were conducted in Nigeria, though one included Nigerien almajirai. No study engaged almajirai in participatory roles. Domains evaluated included infectious disease (10 studies), oral health (2 studies), workplace injury, nutrition, health status, health determinants, and mental health (1 study each). Almajirai represented ranged from 3 to 28 years old. Included studies find high rates of malaria, intestinal parasitosis, urinary tract infection, N. meningitidis, and occupational injury among almajirai. Studies comparing almajirai to controls find significantly higher rates of cholera, urinary schistosomiasis, and psychiatric disorders, lower levels of rabies awareness and poorer oral hygiene among almajirai (p < 0.05). One study, concerning nutrition, describes an intervention to improve almajiri health, though does not provide health outcomes for that intervention. Conclusion We observe that the literature around almajiri health has concerned many domains, though the number of studies within these remains limited. We further note limitations in the geographic scope of this literature, interventions to improve almajiri health, and the consideration of demographic features, like age, that may influence almajiri health. We stress the need for further study in these areas, and for participatory approaches, which may be more likely to effectively improve almajiri health.

Medical schools have an important directive: to train the next generation of physicians. Faced with a primary care physician shortage, increasing numbers of under-represented faculty leaving academic medicine, low representation of women in leadership positions, and an ongoing pandemic, medical schools have a duty to implement solutions to alleviate these issues. Efforts have been made to create more diverse medical school classes, but those efforts are not mirrored in senior faculty demographics. In this medical students' perspective piece, the authors analyzed the demographics of medical school deans in comparison with the United States' demographics and the current composition of active physicians. The authors looked at the specialty, race/ethnicity, and gender of medical school deans in 2019. Based on the analysis, in 2019 only 11% of deans were under-represented minorities, 16% of deans were primary care physicians, and 18% of deans were women. When compared with the makeup of physicians in the United States and the population as a whole, these numbers are unrepresentative of national demographics. By hiring deans with a variety of race/ ethnicities, specialties, and genders, schools set an important precedent that could lead to more pipeline programs, increased under-represented faculty retention, and more primary care physicians.