Oviea Akpotaire and Jeffrey Okonye put in long days working with patients at the veterans鈥 hospital in south Dallas as聽fourth-year medical students at the University of Texas Southwestern.
In a class of 237 people, they are two of only five black men.
鈥淚 knew the ones above us, below us,鈥 Okonye says. 鈥淲e all kind of know each other. It鈥檚 comforting to see another person that looks like you.鈥
Jeffrey Okonye, left, and Oviea Akpotaire are both fourth-year medical students at the University of Texas, Southwestern. (Photo by Lauren Silverman/KERA)
While more black men than before have graduated from college over the past few decades, the number applying to med school has dropped:聽. Enrollment statistics are similar: 聽542 black male students enrolled in 1978, compared to 515 in med school in 2014.
That鈥檚 according to a聽from the聽. Every other minority group 鈥 including Asians and Hispanics 鈥 saw growth in the number of applicants. And black women also saw an uptick in applications.
Enrollment statistics for 2015 are just out and they show a modest gain of 8 percent more black men in medical school over the year before.
鈥淭his is a positive sign,鈥 says Marc Nivet, AAMC鈥檚 chief diversity officer, 鈥渂ut it does not change the fact that for 35 years the number has been trending poorly.鈥
鈥淚 was really surprised,鈥 says Akpotaire, who is studying internal medicine. 鈥淚 sent [the study]聽to my mom and dad immediately.鈥
The total number of applicants to U.S. medical schools , with about 20,000 enrolling, according to the AAMC.
Not Just A Numbers Problem
Increasing ethnic and gender diversity among doctors is important for patient health. 聽show people are more likely to follow doctors鈥 directions on things like medication or exercise if they can relate to them.
Dr. Dale Okorodudu, a third-year pulmonary and critical care fellow at UT Southwestern, says聽making cultural connections can make a big difference.
鈥淚f you can relate to [patients], it鈥檚 a lot easier for them to feel at home and comfortable with you,鈥 he says.
Okorodudu wrote a聽聽about an experience at Parkland Hospital that stuck with him. He was walking down the hallway on the 10th floor when a black man stopped him:
鈥淚t鈥檚 good to see you brother!鈥 I had never met this man, but I knew exactly what he was talking about. With a large smile on his face and a look of pride, he extended his arm to give me a handshake. 鈥淭here aren鈥檛 too many of us doing what you do. I鈥檓 glad we got some representation in here.鈥
What鈥檚 Missing?
For years, Okorodudu has been trying to figure out why so few black men go into medicine. His conclusion:聽The lack of role models.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e a black male, let鈥檚 say you鈥檙e growing up in an inner-city neighborhood,鈥 he says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 so many things directly in front of you that you have the option to go into.鈥
From music and sports to small business and church, Okorodudu says those professions are visible and present in the lives of young African American boys. 鈥淏ut when you talk about the medical workforce, none of us are directly there in front of them,鈥 he said.
Okorodudu decided to become a doctor when he was 18. A year from now, when he鈥檚 done with his fellowship, he鈥檒l be 32.
Med student Jeffrey Okonye points out that for students like him who embraced math and science, there are much faster ways to 鈥渕ake it.鈥
鈥淎 lot of friends of mine, black males, are engineers,鈥 Okonye聽says. 鈥淭hey go to school for four years. They have a job, great pay, even had internships in undergrad, I was highly jealous of.聽Whereas my route, four years undergrad, then another four years of school, and then another X聽amount of聽 training after that.鈥
So why did he take the longer route?
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to describe the feeling you get when you make someone actually feel better,鈥 Okonye says. 鈥淲hen you can see them go from one state to another and recognize that you were a part of literally changing this person鈥檚 life.鈥
Tools To Fix The Pipeline
A desire to care for others isn鈥檛 the only thing that Okonye, Akpotaire and Okorodudu have in common. All three have had聽role models of doctors or nurses in their聽families. And all three are the children of immigrants 鈥 from Nigeria. Okorodudu says that means the group of 1,337 black men who applied to med school last year is very聽different from the group in 1978.
鈥淚n 1978, those people we鈥檙e looking at, a lot of them were probably black American males鈥 whose families had been in this country for generations, he says. Today鈥檚 black medical school students may be more recent immigrants from Africa or the Caribbean. 鈥淪o if we broke it down that way, that factoid is actually even more alarming.鈥
That study by the AAMC has some suggestions on how to rebuild the doctor pipeline. Among them: create聽more mentoring聽programs, invest in education at K-12 public schools, increase financial aid options, and convince medical schools to put less emphasis on standardized tests scores like the MCATs.
Okorodudu is trying to help with an online service called聽. Users connect with mentors on chat or video.
Sometimes, he says, the key to getting kids interested is simply seeing a black man in a white coat.
This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes , , and Kaiser Health News.