Community Racial and Ethnic Representation Among Physicians in US Internal Medicine Residency Programs
Authors: Kim Jung G. , Lett Elle , Boscardin Christy K. , Hauer Karen E. , Chen Isabel L. , Henderson Mark C. , Hogan Sean O. , Yamazaki Kenji , Burk-Rafel Jesse , Fancher Tonya , Nguyen Mytien , Holmboe Eric S. , McDade William , Boatright Dowin H. 
Published: January 2025

Importance

Increasing underrepresented in medicine (URIM) physicians among historically underserved communities helps reduce health disparities. The concordance of URIM physicians with their communities improves access to care, particularly for American Indian and Alaska Native, Black, and Hispanic or Latinx individuals.

Objectives

To explore county-level racial and ethnic representation of US internal medicine (IM) residents, examine racial and ethnic concordance between residents and their communities, and assess whether representation varies by presence of academic institutions or underserved settings.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This retrospective cross-sectional study collected data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), Area Health Resources Files, and US Department of Education data on ACGME-accredited US IM residency programs and their associated county populations. Self-reported racial and ethnic data from 2018 for 4848 residents in 393 IM programs in 205 counties were used. Data were analyzed between February 15 and September 20, 2024.

Exposure

County-level presence for academic health centers (AHCs), minority-serving institutions (MSIs), health professional shortage areas (HPSAs), and rurality.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Main outcomes were representation quotients (RQs) or the ratio of the proportion of IM residents and their concordant county-level racial and ethnic populations. Quantile linear regression models on median representation were used to identify the association with URIM, Asian, and White residents by US Census division and county-level AHCs, MSIs, HPSAs, and rurality.

Results

Among 4848 residents, 4 (0.08%) self-identified as American Indian or Alaskan Native, 1709 (35.3%) as Asian, 289 (6.0%) as Black, 211 (4.4%) as Hispanic or Latinx, 2 (0.04%) as Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and 2633 (54.3%) as White. A total of 761 (15.7%) were classified as URIM. Among URIM groups, American Indian and Alaska Native (mean [SE] RQ, 0.00 [0.04]), Black (mean [SE] RQ, 0.09 [0.20]), Hispanic and Latinx (mean [SE] RQ, 0.00 [0.04]), and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (mean [SE] RQ, 0.00 [0.26]) residents were grossly underrepresented compared with their training sites’ county-level representation. Fifty-one of 205 counties (24.8%) with IM programs had no URIM residents. Black and Hispanic or Latinx residents had higher representation in counties with more MSIs (mean [SD] RQ, 0.19 [0.24]; P = .04; mean [SD] RQ, 0.15 [0.04]; P &amp;lt; .001, respectively), and Hispanic or Latinx residents were less represented in counties with more AHCs (mean [SD] RQ, 0.00 [0.06]; P &amp;lt; .001). Asian residents had lower RQs in counties with more MSIs (mean [SD] RQ, 6.00 [0.65]; P &amp;lt; .001), and White residents had higher representation in counties with greater presence of AHCs (mean [SD] RQ, 0.77 [0.04]; P = .007).

Conclusions and Relevance

In this cross-sectional study, URIM IM residents remained underrepresented compared with their program’s county populations. These findings should inform racial and ethnic diversity policies to address the continuing underrepresentation among graduate medical education physicians, which adversely impacts the care of historically underserved communities.