American Society of Hematology: building a comprehensive minority recruitment and retention professional program

Abstract

In 2003, the Institute of Medicine noted the need to improve workforce diversity. The American Society of Hematology (ASH) responded by developing the Minority Recruitment Initiative (MRI) to recruit diverse physicians/scientists into hematology. We evaluated the outcomes of the program. From 2004-2022, there were 405 awardees. Compared to national estimates, MRI awardees were less likely to discontinue their degree programs. MRI graduate student awardees 0% attrition (97.5% confidence interval (CI) 10.6%) while national minority graduate student attrition was 36%. Medical student awardees had 2.2% (95% CI 0.61%, 5.6%) attrition compared to minority medical school attrition of 5.6%. Awardees were more likely than expected to pursue hematology-oncology (5.7% minority national estimate) as 14.4% (95% CI 8.1%, 23.0%) of medical student awardees and 88.5% (95% CI 70.0%, 97.6%) of early career awardees remain in the field. ASH has developed a successful program, but continued efforts are needed to advance equity in hematology.