CommonSpirit, Morehouse Partnership Trains Black Doctors

The pact looks to create "a joint undergraduate and graduate medical education program to educate and train the next generation of culturally competent health clinicians and researchers."

CommonSpirit Health and Morehouse School of Medicine on Wednesday announced a 10-year, $100 million partnership to train Black doctors.

The initiative is part of a broader plan by Chicago-based CommonSpirit and Atlanta-based Morehouse -- a historically Black medical school renowned for its primary care program -- to create "a joint undergraduate and graduate medical education program to educate and train the next generation of culturally competent health clinicians and researchers," the stakeholders said in a joint press release.

"We are laying the foundation for patients to have more access to Black clinicians and for Black medical students and graduates to gain community-based experience that they need to be successful in their work," said CommonSpirit President and CEO Lloyd H. Dean.

"Our initiative also will create a pathway for healthcare organizations across the nation to follow and share our learnings, a vital part of our work," he said.

MSM and CommonSpirit will contribute $21 million in seed money in the first two years, with a goal of spearheading a 10-year, $100 million initiative with the support of individual donors, industry partners and philanthropic organizations.

There are 155 accredited medical schools in the United States, but Morehouse and three other historically Black medical schools produce the majority of the nation's Black physicians.

"Of the 21,863 students entering medical school in 2019, only 1,626 were Black – and only 619 were Black males," said Morehouse School of Medicine President and Dean Valerie Montgomery Rice, MD.

"This statistic is alarming for many reasons, not the least of which is the impact on patient care," she said. "Studies show that Black patients have better outcomes when treated by Black doctors."

CommonSpirit, one of the nation's largest nonprofit health systems, with a footprint in 21 states, is also the largest provider of Medicaid services in the United States.

Rice called the partnership "the perfect combination of two healthcare organizations that are devoted to the creation and advancement of heath equity in underserved communities."

"Now, more than ever, we believe society needs a unique partnership like ours that can help show the way to reducing health disparities in vulnerable communities, and, in turn, make all communities stronger," she said.

The partnership will create at least 300 new residency training programs each year for Black and other underrepresented groups, recruited from communities that have a historical provider shortage.

Morehouse and CommonSpirit will also build five regional "medical 2 school" campuses and graduate medical education programs in at least 10 markets in partnership with CommonSpirit healthcare hospitals, to be announced in spring 2021.

The partnership will also address cultural competency and develop research programs to confront illnesses that disproportionately affect underserved populations.

"We're immediately leveraging our partnership to address health inequities magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic, as Black Americans are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19," Dean said.

"Together, we will foster a culturally competent system of care that includes testing, care delivery, and vaccine allocation, directed at the most vulnerable populations to reduce the impact of COVID-19 in racial and ethnic communities," he said.