At UH, our goal is to create a workforce of health care professionals that reflects the racial, cultural and gender diversity of our community and allows for each individual to access and prosper from opportunities. Accordingly, the leadership at UH is committed to creating a medical staff that reflects our diverse patient population and the communities we serve. To achieve this goal, UH has created Minority Faculty Development Initiatives, including:
These initiatives provide financial support, education, and mentoring for new, underrepresented ethnic minority faculty. They also expand the pipeline and help with recruitment of minority leadership. More information on each of these initiatives can be found on this website.
Underrepresented Minority (URM) Retention
A leadership advisory and mentoring group consisting of the President and CEO of University Hospitals Case Medical Center, a professor of medicine, an associate professor of pediatrics, and the Dean of Students at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and chaired by Dr. Richard Grant, Professor of Orthopedics, meets new underrepresented minority faculty members, plots a course of development for each one, and mentors them to improve retention.
Growing the UH Team
Dr. Richard Grant has the honor of holding the position as the nation’s first endowed chair devoted to diversity of the faculty.
Minority populations disproportionately bear the short end of health disparities. Greater access and equal treatment for the underserved and increasing the number of minority doctors at UH are major areas of focus for Dr. Richard Grant, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and current Edgar B. Jackson Jr., MD, Chair of Clinical Excellence and Diversity.
"A diverse physician workforce is critical to making health care available to the poorest residents, a large percentage of whom are minorities," said Dr. Grant, who joined UH in 2006 to fill the Edgar B. Jackson Jr., MD, Endowed Chair for Diversity.
"When you look at the millions of dollars in faculty funding for research, it’s interesting to note that minority faculty devote more than 90 percent of research funding to health disparities, compared to less than 10 percent by majority faculty."
An additional motivation to increasing the number of minority clinicians is the trickle-down effect.
"It helps you to address pipeline issues. Younger people come in and say, 'Oh there is a doctor that looks like me. I can do that, too,'" said Dr. Grant, a practicing orthopaedic surgeon who also divides his time between teaching, recruiting, developing and retaining minority residents and fellows.
Efforts to diversify the hospital's medical staff go beyond ethnicity. Dr. Grant also leads initiatives to concentrate on gender inclusion and attracting more women with credentials such as Deborah A. Blades, MD, a neurosurgeon who specializes in spine surgery.
"Dr. Blades completed her training at UH and recently returned as a professor of neurological surgery. That’s a big deal here, and it’s an accomplishment we want to duplicate across the system," Dr. Grant said.