• Kristen Simone, Rabia A Ahmed, Jill Konkin, Sandra Campbell, Lisa Hartling, and Anna E Oswald.
• a Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry , University of Alberta , Edmonton , Canada.
• Med Teach. 2018 Aug 1; 40 (8): 762-780.

Background/PurposeThere is interest to increase diversity among health professions trainees. This study aims to determine the features/effects of interventions to promote recruitment/admission of under-represented minority (URM) students to health professions programs.MethodologyThis registered BEME review applied systematic methods to: title/full-text inclusion review, data extraction, and quality assessment (QA). Included studies reported outcomes for interventions designed to increase diversity of health professions education (HPE) programs' recruitment and admissions.ResultsOf 7225 studies identified 86 met inclusion criteria. Interventions addressed: admissions (34%), enrichment (19%), outreach (15%), curriculum (3%), and mixed (29%). They were mostly single center (76%), from the United States (81%), in medicine (45%) or dentistry (22%). URM definition was stated in only 24%. The dimension most commonly considered was ethnicity/race (88%). The majority of studies (81%) found positive effects. Heterogeneity precluded meta-analysis. Qualitative analysis identified key features: admissions studies points systems and altered weightings; enrichment studies highlighted academic, application and exam preparation, and workplace exposure.Discussion/ConclusionsSeveral intervention types may increase diversity. Limited applicant pools were a rate-limiting feature, suggesting efforts earlier in the continuum are needed to broaden applicant pools. There is a need to examine underlying cultural and external pressures that limit programs' acceptance of initiatives to increase diversity.

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