our mission
At Maitri Coaching & Consulting, our mission is to increase diversity in medical education. We want to increase racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic diversity within medicine and are dedicated to this cause by partnering with organizations whose mission aligns with ours.
We have a special interest in increasing representation of Black, Latinx, Native American/Alaskan Native, LGBTQ+ communities, and those that are non-traditional or first-generation applicants. If you belong to any of these communities, please let us know as we do offer scholarships for you! If your organization would like to sponsor a student from these communities, please contact us at maitiricoaching.consulting@gmail.com.
How maitri wants to help
Medical schools have failed to develop a truly equitable model for recruitment, retention, and advancement of underrepresented minorities and marginalized communities. In addition, the high cost of application fees, test prep, and testing fees make for an inequitable group for underrepresented minorities. Structural inequities and systems that cater to the privileged and high-income families, along with implicit biases, continue to widen the gap for underprivileged minorities and marginalized communities. This leads to exclusive communities and unequal opportunities for all applicants to medical school.
Maitri is dedicated to increasing diversity in medicine, with the hopes of increasing representation in the Black, Latinx, Native American/Alaskan Native, LGBTQ+, and first-generation communities. In addition, we aim to help our female identifying clients gain the confidence and assertiveness to not only become physicians, but feel emboldened enough to know that they are worthy to become leaders in their chosen specialty of medicine.
If you or your organization would like to work with us to help diversify medicine, please contact us at the “Work With Us” link or at maitricoaching.consulting@gmail.com.
Published in 1910, the Flexner Report had a major impact on medical education, which is still seen today. The report led t o the closure of all but two historically black medical schools and encouraged sexism and systemic racism, still felt today in medicine. It was Flexner’s opinion that black physicians should only treat black patients and should be deferential to their white physician counterparts. He even went as far as to say that black physicians could cause harm to their white patients because they suffered from “hookworm and tuberculosis”.
Despite multiple lawsuits by black medical students, it wasn’t until 15 years after Brown v. Board of Education that the AAMC mandated the diversification of medical schools by ensuring that all underrepresented minorities could obtain a medical education. However, the lasting effects of The Flexner Report have sadly continued to perpetuate over 100 years later. In 2021:
Black matriculants (1st year medical students) only made up 11.3% of medical school classes, when compared to 9.5% in 2020
Only 5% of practicing physicians identify as Black or African American
Hispanic students made up only 12.7% of matriculants, when compared to 12% in 2020
American Indian or Alaska Natives only made up 1% of matriculants, which was a decline by 8.5% when compared to 2020
Less than 4% of medical students identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community with 1.4% of these students being persons of color
the impact of the flexner report on diversity in medicine
trends in racial and ethnic representation in the classroom
These statistics are heart-breaking and also frustrating to read as our population of physicians looks increasingly disparate from the patient population. Even in the classroom, medical schools lack diverse faculty:
Only 5.5% of medical school faculty is made up of Hispanic, Latinx, or of Spanish origin
3.6% of faculty members identify as Black or African-American
0.2% of medical faculty identify as Native American or Alaskan Native descent
Only 4% of faculty identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community with 1.4% of these faculty being persons of color
“we all profit from a more diverse, inclusive society, understanding, accommodating, and even celebrating our differences, while pulling together for the common good.”
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg