The Meharry Medical College School of Medicine is proud of its role as a National Center of Excellence in minority health education. 

Throughout its 126-year existence, the Meharry Medical College School of Medicine (MMC-SOM) has maintained a reputation for producing highly educated and skilled African American physicians. Today, it continues to provide an excellent education in the health professions and biomedical sciences with a focus on providing opportunities to African Americans and other under-represented ethnic minority students. While Meharry is a historically black college, its student body reflects the diversity of the nation, with members representing the African American, Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian and Native American communities. Yet, the School of Medicine continues to emphasize its historical commitment to training African American physicians. The African American enrollment in the School of Medicine has increased each year from 1999 through 2002 and the total enrollment of under-represented minorities (URM) has increased each year over the same time.

Meharry Medical College, through its role as a National Center of Excellence [COE], will continue as a leader in minority health education.  Meharry Medical College will also continue to expand medical education to better prepare future physicians to be effective with an increasingly diverse patient population. 

There are six legislative requirements set forth in the COE guidelines.

Legislative Requirement 1:  This program is designed to enhance academic performance of African American students with the Mini-Academic Program for Success [MAPS] for incoming medical students and the USMLE preparation programs for sophomore and junior medical students.

Legislative Requirement 2:  Methodology for increasing the number of African American faculty, which includes identifiying recruiting candidates from Meharry alumni and residents, creating an interest group, advertising in national publications, and various incentive and supportive programs to make the new faculty positions more attractive.

Legislative Requirement 3:  There are six objectives for this requirement: 

[1]  All departments are expected to develop up-to-date educational websites for curriculum delivery;

[2] Support will be given to sustain the library's subscription of online journals;

[3]  Additional lectures and small group case studies will be developed to enhance cultural competency;

[4]  A medical Spanish course will be extended to first-and second-year students;

[5]  Additional Objective Structured Clinical Examination [OSCE] cases will be implemented to assess students' levels of culturally competent care;

[6]  A Center of Excellence website at Meharry Medical College will be created to address health disparities. 

Legislative Requirement 4:  Efforts to enhance research on health disparities of African Americans will be addressed by pairing students with faculty members in a summer mentoring research program. 

Legislative Requirement 5:  This is also a summer program that exposes students to a variety of health care settings in African American communities. 

Legislative Requirement 6:  The goal of bringing more minorities into the health professions by creating a competitive applicant pool requires participation and involvement with other academic institutions.  A BS/MD program is being designed where students will participate in summer enrichment courses, MCAT preparation, and other activities.  These students will be selected from historically Black colleges and universities.  Additionally, high school students who have completed the tenth grade may apply for a summer science enrichment and SAT preparation program which will help improve SAT scores, computer literacy, and study and test-taking skills.