Diversity

The Department of Internal Medicine strives to create an inviting environment and institutional culture of inclusivity where every individual’s unique and diverse characteristics are valued and respected. We sustain the richness of our department by recruiting and retaining trainees, staff, and faculty from diverse backgrounds and talents. We believe an institution is best equipped to succeed when its members represent the population that it serves. At Yale, we have access to rich cultural opportunities to connect with other professionals in and around Yale University, Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS), and the city of New Haven.

• Focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion is critical to our mission
• Providing a safe, welcoming environment for people of all backgrounds results in beneficial diversity of thought
• An inclusive, positive, and supportive platform fosters learning and collaboration
  
• Having a diverse team enhances our ability to provide excellent clinical care, research, and medical education.
• Training and retaining a diverse team of health care professionals promotes community-wide health by increased access and engagement

• Increasing discussions of the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion
  
• Enhancing outreach to increase our diversity
• Identifying and combatting implicit and explicit bias
• Ensuring equitable treatment of all
• Working to rectify situations that have resulted in medically underserved populations (regarding equitable medical experiences and education)
  
• Sharing best practices at the local, regional, and national levels for the deployment of evidence-based DEI strategies at conferences of various clinical and educational organizations

Thank you for visiting the Yale Department of Internal Medicine Diversity, Equity and Inclusion website. Whether you're a medical student, a Yale resident, fellow, faculty, or staff member, you'll find that the Yale medical community is diverse and offers an open, welcoming and thriving learning environment for everyone.

In 2016, Dr. Inginia Genao was appointed as associate chair for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for the Department of Internal Medicine. Through this role, she partnered with department leadership and faculty to spread a powerful message of inclusivity.

Following her departure, I joined Yale in July of 2023 to become the Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and I look forward to carrying on this tradition and building on the work she started.

We are addressing recruitment through a variety of initiatives. The department analyzed the ranks of professor and assistant professor with the goal of bringing the diversity and gender breakdown more in line with the population of the United States and the city of New Haven.

We defined our culture and created a mission statement. Programs to train faculty were instituted to improve leadership skills. Team dynamics were looked at to improve cohesiveness. Vice chairs, associate chairs, section chiefs, and program directors were empowered to become agents of change. Resources across Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Health were consulted.

The Diversity Committee was established and has several ongoing efforts and initiatives to educate, recruit, and retain talent such as visiting historically black colleges and universities across the country; attending national conferences; hosting students as part of the Yale Visiting Student Scholarship Program (VSSP) to Enhance Healthcare Workforce Diversity; instituting communications and public relations efforts; educating house staff and faculty on topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion; and connecting and establishing collaboration within the department. In the future, they will connect and engage with New Haven public schools and the New Haven community.

The work, which has become a cornerstone of the department, is making a difference. Over the past four years, 55% of faculty appointed or promoted to the rank of professor in our department were women and/or members of minority groups underrepresented in medicine (URiM).

We know that diversity and inclusion are beneficial. These initiatives bring a richness of ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives to create an improved learning environment. In medicine especially, lack of diversity is thought to exacerbate racial and ethnic health care disparities, which we work daily to dispel.

Enjoy exploring our website!

Benjamin Mba, MBBS, MRCP (UK), CHCQM, FACP