March 30, 2022 – The Propel Center, the global HBCU innovation and learning hub intended to level the playing field and open greater doors of opportunity for their students, today announced the creation and launch of its Propel-BDHEA internships, a national program focused on select HBCU and other African American students interested in pursuing medical and related healthcare careers.
The internship partnership will reimagine health equity and advance the goal of the Black Directors Health Equity Agenda (BDHEA) to foster collaboration among top health systems. BDHEA programs address the social determinants of health, provide best practices, ensure equitable access to care and advocate for long-term, meaningful healthcare policies impacting Black people and other communities of color. BDHEA unites healthcare leaders in efforts to diversify their organizations and achieve long-term health equity. INROADS, Inc. will execute the program.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the U.S. will have up to 122,000 unfilled posts for physicians by 2032. This skills shortage in the medical profession is even more alarming as it relates to future healthcare professionals of color: Only 7.3 percent of those enrolled in medical schools in 2020 identified as Black or African American.
With the guidance of INROADS, Propel and BDHEA will secure a total of 100 students for the internships, which are open to collegians and will serve as a unique opportunity for immersion, focused clinical study, leadership access and exposure that the partners believe will accelerate early talent development and help advance the nation’s diverse medical pool and workforce of the tomorrow.
The selected interns will engage in innovative, work-based learning experiences, research opportunities with R&D-focused institutions, augmented academic coursework and mentoring. These future healthcare professionals will additionally benefit from unprecedented access to Propel, BDHEA and INROADS’ corporate partners and senior advisors, as well as select medical schools in collaboration with the Atlanta University Center Data Science Initiative (AUC) and specific HBCU medical and pre-med programs, while working on emerging medical health technology projects.
Propel and BDHEA’s joint vision and commitment to health equity will ensure that all HBCU students have the access and ability necessary to achieve their full healthcare career potential. The partners emphasize that the most effective pathway toward eliminating persistent health disparities mandates leveraging data-informed strategies to help create a society where neither race nor poverty determine health or overall life outcomes.
Prime areas of focus for the new national internship program will include infant and maternal health, internal medicine, preventive and health equity, clinical algorithms, data science, telemedicine and remote patient monitoring, app development, cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases and more.