Affirmative Action in the Balance

To provide good care, physicians must understand the communities and cultures in which they work. An important way to ensure that physicians understand the lives of their patients and to reduce health disparities is to promote racial and ethnic diversity in the physician workforce. However, a crucial tool that has made such diversity possible is currently in danger. Within the next few months, the U.S. Supreme Court will announce its decision in a case destined to chart the future of affirmative action in American higher education. The outcome in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin 1 will determine whether race . . .