Osteopathic Student Government Leaders Advance Diversity During Black History Month and Beyond

 By Alexander J. Golden, MS, OMS III, UIWSOM, COSGP National Diversity Chair

As this year’s National Diversity Chair for AACOM’s Council of Osteopathic Student Government Presidents (COSGP), I have been working diligently toward advancing diversity amongst all osteopathic medical schools. This month, COSGP will be honoring Black History Month through a series of planned events and resource sharing.

On February 5, 2023, a flyer was sent to every diversity liaison from each osteopathic medical school across the country advertising AACOM’s Black History Month reading list as well as their webinar entitled, “Finding a Cure: An Open Discussion on Racism and Injustice in the American Healthcare System.” Designed by LECOM-Bradenton’s Student Government Association (SGA) President Yasmine Ezzair, we encouraged each liaison to distribute this flyer to all their medical school classes as well as circulate it around campus via television display or by physically hanging up copies in high-volume areas. We also launched a Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) initiative thanks to the committed efforts of Burrell-COM’s SGA President Alberto Velasco and Vice-President Kevin Weiss. Similar to the Translating Osteopathic Understanding into Community Health (TOUCH) program sponsored by AACOM, where volunteer hours that benefit the community can be documented, the JEDI program aims to provide a way to quantify the time and effort that medical schools put forth encouraging their students to engage in training and dialogue to improve justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. This is a program COSGP is very proud of and only one of four operations we will roll out by the end of this academic year.

Thanks to my incredible diversity committee composed of COSGP general council members, all of whom volunteered to serve in this role, osteopathic medical schools can expect to see templates and resources that can be utilized however they best see fit at their campus. One project that will be rolled out is a reporting system that can be monitored by each medical school, which strictly focuses on grievances regarding prejudice and discrimination. While some schools may lack this opportunity, we are providing them a way to implement this to guarantee that administration becomes aware of diversity issues on campus. A case number can be assigned to the grievance, which can help monitor the problem from investigation through resolution. Moreover, we will be distributing a PDF of ways in which medical schools can incorporate a diversiWEEK into their academic calendars. Inclusive of workshops, scholarship opportunities and socials, the goal of this project is to dedicate time each year to diversity awareness. Finally, we are hoping to provide a document of common conditions and how they present in people of color, or those from diverse backgrounds, with the goal of enhancing patient outcomes from as early as medical school. Overall, this committee has exceeded both mine and the executive board of the COSGP’s expectations and our wish is that each medical school take at least one of these initiatives and implement it at their institution.

Furthermore, I have the unique opportunity of attending the only osteopathic medical school, the University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine (UIWSOM), that was selected to participate in Icahn School of Medicine’s inaugural Anti-Racist Transformation (ART) in Medical Education program. Funded by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, this three-year project was created to help dismantle systemic racism and bias in medical education settings and promote shared learning on how to put this concept into action. Inclusive of students, staff and faculty, the ART in Medical Education project will help establish and maintain the capacity for medical institutions for transformational change. Dr. Linda Grace Solis, UIWSOM’s assistant professor of applied humanities and chair of AACOM’s Council on Diversity and Equity, and Dr. Rebecca Sanchez, UIWSOM assistant professor of microbiology, have spearheaded this project at our institution. With this program entering its second year, the hope is that we, as medical professionals, can address the lack of diversity in healthcare, have difficult conversations and make systemic change.

Having the opportunity to enact change as the COSGP diversity chair this year has been very rewarding. In a political climate that has recently brought forth injustices and crises across several minority and underrepresented identities both nationally and internationally, we need to establish our roles as leaders in healthcare and help create a more equitable and inclusive society. While COSGP is only one avenue that can address diversity in medicine, our organization is proud to announce that they will be partnering up with the American Medical Association-Medical Student Section’s United Leaders in Medicine Working Group, which is unifying student advocates across allopathic and osteopathic medical schools and organizations to address myriad issues, especially those regarding diversity, equity and inclusion. We at COSGP hope that medical schools continue to advance diversity on their campuses and explore the unique opportunities that AACOM offers regarding Black History Month.