Cleveland Clinic collaborates with an HBCU to increase diversity in medical field

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - The Cleveland Clinic is collaborating with Morehouse School of Medicine, a historically Black college and university, to increase the number of underrepresented groups in the medical field.

Students will work on several projects including an investigation of the root causes of gender, racial, and ethnic underrepresentation in vascular device and pharmaceutical clinical trials.

“I believe it’s important to have diversity in medicine in order to improve better health outcomes,” student Sanaai Wynn said. “We want to include minorities in clinical research, so we have a broader understanding of how genetics works.”

Dr. Lee Kirksey, a vascular surgeon at the Clinic, said it’s important to guide and mentor young Black students interested in medicine.

“This partnership between the Cleveland Clinic and Morehouse medical school to collaborate and to work with their pipeline program to bring students like this is exactly what we should be doing overtime if we want to continue not only have a short-term impact but have a long-term impact in reversing this course of low numbers of underrepresented groups within medical training,” Kirksey said.

These students hope by entering the medical field they’re able to help the community.

“I believe it is extremely important to have diversity in the medical field because it’s important see a physician that looks like you,” student Zaria Goutier said

“I feel it provides more comfortability and cultural awareness.”

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