Medical schools politicizing health care, putting lives ‘on the line’: watchdog

‘Medical schools are shifting resources away from the science and practice of caring for patients and toward satisfying political goals,’ scholar says

American medical schools are focusing too much on political agendas and not enough on health care education, a medical watchdog organization warned in a recent report.

The report “Activism Instead of Anatomy” from Do No Harm states that diversity, equity, and inclusion politics are crowding out scientific medical education at many schools across the country.

“If medical schools are short-changing rigorous training in science for the political indoctrination of future doctors, there are real consequences. Lives are on the line,” author and senior fellow Jay Greene wrote.

Greene, (pictured) a former education professor at the University of Arkansas, told The College Fix that this “politicization” is “reducing the quality of training which results in worse care for patients.”

The people who run and teach in med schools decided to offer these politicized courses either to serve their own preferences or to satisfy the accreditors dominated by the [American Medical Association] and [Association of American Medical Colleges]. The broader politicization of medicine may also be influencing these actors,” Greene said in a recent email.

The College Fix contacted the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association, inquiring about the report and their commitment to unbiased physician education.

An AAMC spokesperson declined to comment, and the AMA did not respond to several emailed requests for comment over the past several weeks.

For the report, Greene examined the course catalogs of 20 leading medical schools to determine how often specific, politicized words were used as compared to traditional, medical terminology.

This research technique known as “content analysis” was used to determine how many times eight politicized words such as “race/racism,” “identity,” and “diversity” were used compared to eight scientific or medical terms such as “Hippocratic/Hippocrates,” “anatomy,” “obesity,” and “placebo.”

Combining results for all 20 course catalogs, the eight politicized terms appeared 2,406 times, while the eight traditional, medical terms appeared only 1,928 times.

The most commonly used term was “social,” and it appeared about 44 times on average in each medical school’s catalog. The research also found the term “diversity” is mentioned more often than “chemistry.”

One of the medical terms searched, “obesity,” appears less often than all eight of the politicized terms in all 20 course lists and descriptions, the report found.

“Medical school courses focus more on ‘justice’ than they do on ‘obesity,’ even though it’s “one of the country’s most serious health challenges,” the report found.

More than two in five American adults suffer from obesity, according to a Centers for Disease Control report.

At Stanford University School of Medicine in California, ideological terms appeared twice as many times as medical terminology, according to the report.

Another example of politicization identified in the report was the course “Human Rights and Medicine” at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.

According to the course description, students learn about “immigration reform and its effect on medical care, … gender issues in medicine and cross-cultural considerations, HIV and associated discrimination, access to care and the rights of the uninsured in America, and issues of distributive justice affected by militarization in society.”

“There are a number of steps that could be taken to restore medical training to its proper mission,” he told The Fix.

“The chief among these would be that many of these med schools are public institutions accountable to policymakers in their states who appropriate funds to subsidize their operations,” he said. “Those state policymakers could signal informally or in legislation, their desire that med schools focus on scientific training rather than political indoctrination.”

“Federal policymakers could play a similar role with private medical schools, which are also heavily subsidized with federal tax dollars,” he said.

He said Americans deserve expertise over politicization, because it directly impacts their safety.

“Similarly, if the training of civil engineers spent more time on politics and less on bridge and street design, we’d have more bridges that collapsed and less safe roads,” Greene told The Fix.

America, and most of the world, no longer have “health care.” We have “medical care.” Doctors are foregoing root cause analysis in lieu of prescribing quick fixes, because the reality is that people don’t want to change. If there’s a pill for something, why not just take that instead?

I believe we’re at an inflection point very similar to what we’re seeing politically. At some point the institution of “health care” is going to become so polarized that the public will trust influencers and social media over health care “professionals,” and why shouldn’t they? There’s more reality and truth coming out of social media than our own medical schools, and this article validates that.

Something has to change, and soon.

"...On a related note, a lot of medical schools no longer subscribe to the Hippocratic Oath or have new MDs take it..."

Oh, how I wish that were true. If they trashed the old one and didn't require them to take an oath of any kind, it might be less damaging.

But the NEW oaths many are taking are disgusting:

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Class of 2024 Oath

As the entering class of 2020, we start our medical journey amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and a national civil rights movement reinvigorated by the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery. We honor the 700,000+ lives lost to COVID-19, despite the sacrifices of health care workers.

We recognize the fundamental failings of our health care and political systems in serving vulnerable communities. This oath is the first step in our enduring commitment to repairing the injustices against those historically ignored and abused in medicine: Black patients, Indigenous patients, Patients of Color and all marginalized populations who have received substandard care as a result of their identity and limited resources.

Acknowledging the privilege and responsibility that come with being a physician, I take this oath as a call to action to fulfill my duty to patients, to the medical profession and to society.

Thereby, I pledge as a physician and lifelong student of medicine:

I will support and collaborate with my colleagues across disciplines and professions, while respecting the patient’s vital role on the health care team.

I will honor my physical, mental and emotional health so as to not lessen the quality of care I provide.

I will carry on the legacy of my predecessors by mentoring the next generation of diverse physicians.

I will recognize the pivotal role of ethical research in the advancement of medicine and commit myself to endless scholarship with the ultimate goal of improving patient care.

I will care for my patients’ holistic well-being, not solely their pathology. With empathy, compassion and humility, I will prioritize understanding each patient’s narrative, background and experiences while protecting privacy and autonomy.

I will champion diversity in both medicine and society, and promote an inclusive environment by respecting the perspectives of others and relentlessly seeking to identify and eliminate my personal biases.

I will be an ally to those of low socioeconomic status, the BIPOC community, the LGBTQIA+ community, womxn/women, differently-abled individuals and other underserved groups in order to dismantle the systemic racism and prejudice that medical professionals and society have perpetuated.

I will educate myself on social determinants of health in order to use my voice as a physician to advocate for a more equitable health care system from the local to the global level.

I will restore trust between the health care community and the population in which I serve by holding myself and others accountable, and by combating misinformation in order to improve health literacy.

In making this oath, I embrace the ever-changing responsibilities of being a physician and pledge to uphold the integrity of the profession in the clinic and beyond.

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