MU medical students sign petition in opposition to bills that prohibit diversity training

By Shay Lawson

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    COLUMBIA, Missouri (KOMU) — MU medical students are responding to pieces of legislation that would prohibit diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) education and training in any institute that receives state funding.

Senate bill 410, otherwise known as the “Do No Harm Act,” is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday.

Jay Devineni, a medical student at MU, wrote a position statement that opposes both SB 410 and House bill 489. He said he asked fellow MU School of Medicine students to sign it if they wanted to take that position.

“We’ve had 200 plus, very courageous students, which I think is a lot of students who have joined me in opposing this bill,” Devineni said.

Devineni has a master’s degree in both journalism and public health.

“Working as a journalist and working in public health, I realized that medicine is still something I wanted to do, and policy is something that I wanted to be part of my journey in medicine,” Devineni said. “I applied for medical school, I got into Mizzou. I wanted policy to be a big part of what I do, so I got very involved in some of the advocacy efforts some of our students participate in.”

Devineni is also the legislative/advocacy chair for the Mizzou Medical Society, a student advocacy group. He plans to testify at SB 410’s public hearing Tuesday.

“We have five to 10 students from Mizzou’s medical school who will be going,” Devineni said. “In addition, we have been coordinating with a lot of different groups including people in medical education, physicians in general, other education experts and other advocacy groups who will all be there testifying against this bill.”

Devineni said the bill threatens MU’s accreditation and curriculum.

“It threatens our accreditation, because we have diversity, equity, and inclusion expectations that need to be met in our curriculum in order for us to meet the accreditation standard,” Devineni said. “We also just really feel like it’s important that students learn the concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion in order to be able to become physicians who can practice high-quality, patient-centered care.”

The American Medical Association (AMA) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) oversee the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME).

LCME determines what needs to be present in the medical curriculum and in medical education in order for physicians to be considered qualified.

“If your school doesn’t meet those standards, then regardless of what your degree says, a lot of places just aren’t going to be able to hire you,” Devineni said. “You’re not going to be able to practice medicine in most places in the U.S. if you don’t have a degree from an LCME or COCA accredited institution. If we lose our accreditation, we lose the value of our degrees essentially and lose our ability to practice medicine in most places in America.”

Devineni said it’s important for health care professionals to learn about DEI because of health care disparities.

“There are certain statistics that are just alarming. For example, Black women in America are three to four times as likely to die from maternal mortality than white woman are,” Devineni said.

Devineni said the state needs a physician workforce that is representative of Missouri’s diverse patient population.

“We need a physician workforce that, regardless of their background, is trained to understand the unique perspectives of other people from different backgrounds, and DEI education is really necessary for that,” he said. “So if we’re prohibited from requiring that then a lot of students simply just won’t be learning it and will not be able to provide the best care possible for their patients.”

The Missouri’s House Special Committee on Government Accountability held public hearings last week for the SB 410’s House counterpart HB 489. The committee also heard HB 1196, which would prohibit the requirement of DEI statements from job applicants, students and employees. Those bills have not been scheduled for a vote yet.

SB 410’s sponsor, Sen. Andrew Koenig (R-Manchester), did not respond for KOMU 8’s request for comment.

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