AAMC Reporter: November 2006

AspiringDocs.org Campaign Kicks Off

Khalil Johnson, M.D., a resident physician at The George Washington University Medical Center, is one of the doctors featured in promotional materials for the campaign

AspiringDocs.org, the AAMC's new campaign to increase diversity in medicine, officially launched in October when a pilot program at the University of Arizona kicked off the campaign's Web site and online community.

Approximately 100 students registered for the site as part of the university's October 4 Multicultural Career Day, during which the campaign and its Web site were prominently featured in several campus exhibits and activities, along with advertisements appearing in campus newspapers, in buses, and on selected Web sites.

"Our opinion research shows that students want to know as much as they possibly can about becoming competitive applicants to medical school," said Elisa K. Siegel, senior vice president of the AAMC's Office of Communications, which helped develop the campaign.

"AspiringDocs.org carves out a new space by providing students with comprehensive online information from the AAMC and other medical school experts as well as new interactive tools," Siegel said.

The campaign's cornerstone is the AspiringDocs.org Web site, which is free and features a variety of resources for prospective medical students, including information about career options in medicine, preparing for the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), applying to medical school, financing a medical education, and important deadlines in the process.

Arizona was chosen as a pilot site for the campaign because of its low proportion of undergraduate biology majors (the most common major for medical school) who apply to medical school and its sizable minority student body.

"This campaign created a lot of excitement among our students. There was a real buzz," said Linda Don, M.Ed., director of diversity and workforce development initiatives at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

"It's important that any campaign like this is broad in its approach. These students need to see themselves in medicine. And [AspiringDocs.org] is aiming to do that," Don said.

In addition to the University of Arizona pilot, two-year outreach efforts will be conducted at California State University, Fresno; the University of Pittsburgh; and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey—all institutions that, like Arizona, had high numbers of undergraduate minority biology majors, but fewer-than-expected medical school applicants.

According to Charles Terrell, Ed.D., vice president of the AAMC's Division of Diversity Policy and Programs, which also helped develop the campaign, approximately 3 percent of all U.S. students who receive their undergraduate degrees apply for medical school, while that number is 2 percent among minorities. Terrell said one campaign goal is to bring the number of minority medical school applicants in line with the national average.

"I want this campaign to be a signal," Terrell said.

"I want low-income, underserved, and underrepresented students to know that we care and that we find their underrepresentation in medical school and the physician workforce to be unacceptable. We are now able to show students a new, state-of-the-art tool that is unlike any other tool and which will support their efforts. If knowledge is power, then using this tool will empower these students," Terrell said.

What makes the site unique, according to Siegel and Terrell, are two interactive features. The first, called "Ask the Experts," allows students to ask questions and receive advice from AAMC staff, as well as experts in the medical school community, such as pre-health advisers, financial aid counselors, and practicing physicians. Among the "Ask the Expert" topics to be explored are how to make the "right moves" toward medical school, preparing for the MCAT, working with pre-health advisers, creating competitive applications, minimizing the financial strain of medical school, and preparing for interviews.

The second feature, called "Hot Topics," allows students who register for the site to share their opinions and advice through online discussions with their fellow "aspiring doctors." The importance of mentors, favorite pre-med classes, and the benefits of working with pre-health advisers are just a few of the "hot topics" to be covered in the months ahead.

In addition to the information on the new Web site, the campaign provides a dose of inspiration for students by highlighting real-life stories of practicing physicians who have overcome a variety of obstacles and barriers on their way to medical school. The advertising for the campaign also features real doctors, who are residents at The George Washington University Medical Center.

If the AspiringDocs.org Web site is the high-tech part of the campaign, pilot efforts at four colleges and universities provide a more tangible component. By heavily promoting the AspiringDocs.org Web site on the pilot campuses through localized print and online media, career fairs, speaker programs, and other activities, the campaign will attempt to create "buzz" on these campuses and encourage students to join AspiringDocs.org.

The campaign will also reach out via targeted e-mails to students who registered to take the MCAT exam or have participated in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Summer Medical and Dental Education Program, a six-week preparatory program co-directed by the AAMC and geared largely toward minority undergraduate college students.

As the AspiringDocs.org campaign unfolds, Siegel said it will hold lessons for its organizers as well as its student participants.

"We are going to learn a lot about how to market medicine as a career," she said. "This has not been done before, but with the coming doctor shortage as well as the competition that medicine faces from other careers, we want to make sure that medicine continues to attract top, caring students. What are the best ways to communicate with college students? What are the messages about medicine that turn them on and off? What are the barriers they face—real and perceived—in their decision to apply or not apply to medical school? These are just some of the lessons we hope to learn from the campaign."

Siegel noted that the year-long process of creating and organizing the campaign was a "broad, cooperative effort" at the national level and involved many parties, including several universities, academic medical institutions, and other associations. "AspiringDocs.org is truly a campaign of our community."

— By Scott Harris

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