The Alliance Condemns Racist and Discriminatory Behavior and Policies
Like most of you, the Alliance leadership became aware of a lawsuit brought against a member institution alleging incidents of discrimination and retaliation based on race and sex. The Alliance will not comment on any pending court case.
However, this is a reminder that our academic community must do substantially more to unravel the structures and barriers preventing us from achieving equity, diversity, and inclusion at all levels in medicine. Only by doing so will we advance the excellence and innovation in medicine required to solve some of our toughest challenges such as recruiting a more diverse physician workforce, creating a supportive learning and working environment, reducing health disparities, and improving the experience for all patients interfacing with our health care system.
The Alliance condemns racist and discriminatory behavior and policies. As the national consortium which represents more than 10,000 internal medicine physicians and administrators, AAIM promotes the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and has made DEI the focal point of the organization’s strategic plan. At the Alliance, we believe a diverse body of students, residents, faculty, and staff provides a better teaching, learning, and work environment, as well as high quality care for patients. The Alliance seeks to be supportive of its members, and find ways to partner with our member institutions to influence positive, systemic change in academic internal medicine.
AAIM encourages members to foster open and honest dialogue about DEI, and social justice within their respective institutions. We also encourage members to connect with colleagues through the AAIM Diversity and Inclusion Community online discussion forum and other member forums as we commit to advance diversity in medicine.
Sincerely,
L. James Nixon, MD, MHPE
Chair, AAIM Board of Directors
D. Craig Brater, MD
AAIM President and CEO
Bergitta E. Cotroneo, FACMPE
Deputy Chief Executive Officer and EVP