Till now, less number of women and minorities are working in medical specialties in America. In order to address health disparities, it is vital to diversify the physician workforce. Researchers said that medical schools have been trying to increase the level of diversity of their children.

Dr. Curtiland Deville of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland said that there are some specialties like radiology, orthopedics and otolaryngology, where there is no equal distribution of women and minorities.

In the study, the researchers have used data from which they came to know that of the 16,835 medical school graduates in 2012, 48% were women and 15% were minority groups. In the same year, there were 115,111 trainees in post-graduation and of them, 46% were women and 14% were minorities.

Out of the 688,468 practicing physicians in that year, 30% were women and 9% were from minorities. There were certain fields, where there were more number of women like in obstetrics and gynecology, family medicine, pathology, and psychiatry.

In the case of black trainees, family medicine and obstetrics and gynecology were the top picks. Among Hispanic trainees, psychiatry, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics were the latest picks.

Dr. Deville said, “First is the need to increase the available pipeline of diverse medical students. This is especially the case for Blacks, Hispanics, and other underrepresented groups”. It is equally important that females, black and Hispanic medical students are given proper exposure; they are prepared to join all the medical specialties.