April 3, 2025 Story by: Editor
Louisiana has a greater share of Black students entering medical school than the national average, new data shows.
Why it matters: “Having Black physicians is good for everybody’s health,” says Norma Poll-Hunter, senior director of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ human capital portfolio.
The big picture: Having doctors who resemble the patients they’re serving can improve health outcomes and enable patients to feel more comfortable voicing health concerns, multiple studies suggest.
- Black patients being treated by Black doctors may experience less medical racism, whether that means better treatment in the emergency room or not having pain or other risk factors dismissed.
By the numbers: In Louisiana, 10.1% of first-year medical students identified as Black or African American in 2025, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, which has collected data on this topic since 1978.
- The national average is 8.9%.
- In 1978, it was 6.9% in Louisiana and 5.7% nationally.
- About 30% of Louisianans identified as Black in the most recent Census data.
Meanwhile, only 5% of doctors in America are Black — compared with 14% of the general population.
State of play: Xavier University and Ochsner Health are working together to open the only HBCU medical school in the Gulf South and the fifth one nationally.
- It will be housed downtown in Benson Tower.
- The goal of the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine, officials say, is to train doctors “who authentically mirror the communities they serve.”
- The school hopes to have 50 students in its first class. An opening date hasn’t been set yet.
Flashback: Flint Medical College opened in 1896 as New Orleans’ first medical school for Black students, according to Gambit. It closed in 1911.
- The buildings at the corner of Canal and Robertson streets became a hospital owned by Dillard and then an apartment complex, the report says.
Over the years, factors that may have impacted Black med school student admission rates include:
- The influential 1910 Flexner Report. Without it, 29% more African American physicians would’ve graduated in 2019 alone, one JAMA study projects.
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964. It banned segregation in hospitals and higher education.
- The 1972 federal Health Careers Opportunity Program. It led to a 70% increase in minority students in health professions between its launch and 1980, according to CDC data.
- The 2020 pandemic. That’s when there was a national spotlight on the Black Lives Matter movement (and racism in medical institutions). Health care was particularly top of mind, and there was a reduction in med school admission costs. The next year, there was an uptick in the number of Black med school students.
Source: Axios
