Federal bill opposing diversity efforts in medical schools has strong ties to North Carolina

A new proposal by a North Carolina congressman targeting diversity efforts in medical schools follows a conservative pundit’s recent criticism of two North Carolina medical schools.

Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy is sponsoring the “Educate Act,” which would cut off federal funding to medical schools that promote diversity, equity and inclusion — or even have an office of diversity or equity.

The moratorium would apply to federal student loans as well as research grants. It would likely affect North Carolina’s four largest medical schools: the University of North Carolina, Duke University, East Carolina University and Wake Forest University, all of which have some type of diversity office.

Three of the four ranked in the top 15 U.S. medical schools for percentage of black students in 2023, according to U.S. News and World Report. East Carolina was fourth with 18.5%, UNC was sixth with 13.8%, and Duke ranked eighth with 13%.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C., last week, Murphy accused medical schools of lowering their entry standards to increase minority student enrollments while refusing to admit many qualified white students.

“Imagine you're the patient and you're looking up and tomorrow, you're having your chest cut open because you're gonna have a bypass,” said Murphy, a urologist who earned a medical degree from UNC. “Who do you want as your doctor, someone who is skillful or someone who got into medical school because of identity politics?”

Murphy said he’s not pushing for fewer minority medical students. He said the country needs more doctors, not fewer. He suggested medical schools could expand their class size to admit a greater number of all qualified students instead.

“We want the physician population to mirror what we have in the country, but we cannot sacrifice merit. We cannot sacrifice quality to do so,” he said. “We're not talking about art school. We're not talking about English school. For God's sake, we're talking about medical school, where people's lives are at risk.”

Researchers have found that racial disparity in the healthcare profession can lead to negative outcomes for patients and that relationships between patients and doctors with shared identities often lead to better communication, trust and a greater likelihood a patient will follow a doctor’s advice.

Asked for evidence that medical schools are lowering their standards, Murphy’s spokesman Alex Crane provided a 2017 chart by the conservative American Enterprise Institute, based on data provided by the Association of American Medical Colleges. The chart showed that among students with average grades and Medical College Admission Test scores, a smaller percentage of white students were accepted than black or Hispanic applicants.

The chart didn’t show the number of applicants in each pool, only the percentage that were accepted. It also didn’t offer any evidence that schools’ standards are lower than they once were. The data from the chart was based on medical school applicants from 2013 to 2016, long before DEI initiatives became elevated in the national conversation following the 2020 death of George Floyd, who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

Murphy’s spokesman also referred WRAL News to recent social media posts by right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro, targeting two North Carolina medical schools for not dismissing students or residents who made comments critical of white or conservative people.

In one case, Shapiro posted a clip of a videoconference discussion about diversity at the Duke University School of Medicine. In the clip, a surgery resident, Dr. Vignesh Raman, says his “heart sinks every time I go into a room and I watch them watching Fox News or they have a MAGA hat on.” Raman also said his department, in an effort to recruit more diverse residents, is abandoning “metrics and screens” in favor of “holistic review.”

The video appears to no longer be publicly available. Duke School of Medicine declined to answer questions about the video. Raman didn’t respond to our interview request.

“Duke University’s School of Medicine has not lowered its standards for medical school admission or graduation, and continues to rely on GPA and MCAT scores, among other criteria,”Duke spokeswoman Sarah Avery said in a statement. “Achieving health equity while recruiting diverse talent within our education and training programs allows us to deliver the highest quality care to our patients and makes Duke a world leader in innovative and transformative research.”

Shapiro has also criticized Wake Forest University School of Medicine for not repudiating two students who made comments perceived as critical of culturally conservative patients in 2022.

Shapiro accused Kychelle Del Rosario of having "injured" a patient by missing their vein after the patient mocked the pronouns on her nametag. He says a fellow medical student who joked about the incident should also have faced disciplinary action.

The incident blew up into a media firestorm in 2022 after conservative websites and Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused Del Rosario of “boasting about a stabbing” and blamed the school’s “wokeness” for not expelling her.

Del Rosario issued an apology at the time, saying her unsuccessful blood draw was not deliberate, and that her tweet about it had been “irresponsible” and “misguided.” The school said in a 2022 statement that she had been put on a leave of absence.

WRAL News sought comment on the proposed legislation from Wake Forest, UNC and ECU. None of the schools responded.