The Teams | The Work
Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in Medical Education
Prevalence Study
This study was designed to benchmark and follow the number of allopathic (MD) medical students who disclose a disability and register with disability services over a period of 10 years. We recently added osteopathic (DO) schools to the survey.
Wave 1 of data collection and benchmarking
2015-16
Wave 2 of data collection 2018-19
Wave 3 of data collection 2021-22
Wave 4 of data collection 2025-26
Team:
Research Manager: Ben Case
PI: Lisa Meeks
Analysts: Kurt Herzer, Missy Plegue
Researchers: Bonnie Swenor
Publications:




The Pathway Project
Performance and trajectory of medical students with disabilities
12 institutions
January 2020-May 2020
Co-PI's: Lisa Meeks, PhD and Michael Kim MD
Institutional Impact Study
AIM: To identify the institutional impact of non-accommodation on USMLE exams
PI: Lisa M. Meeks, PhD
Co-I: Kristina Peterson, PhD
June 2020-August 2020
Psychological Disabilities
Our team is conducting a rapid review of the literature to discern the literature on accommodations for psychological disabilities in health science programs
TEAM:
Patricia Anderson
Fragoso Ligia Fragoso-Delgado
Legal Trends
Our team is working to catalog legal cases involving health science programs to identify trends and inform best practices in health science education and disability inclusion.
TEAM:
Lisa Meeks, PhD
Elisa Laird, JD
Maher Budron
Sarah Pancino
US-DO
Programs
Prevalence
Study
Team:
PI: Lisa Meeks
Co-I: Ben Case
Analyst: Missy Plegue
This study was designed to benchmark and follow the number of osteopathic medical students who disclose a disability and register with disability services over a period of 10 years.
Wave 1 of data collection and benchmarking 2020
Wave 2 of data collection 2022
Wave 3 of data collection 2024
Wave 4 of data collection 2026

Technical Standards
Team:
Ben Case
Katy Stauffer
AIMS:
The study will survey the technical standards of newly-established U.S. M.D.-granting institutions to determine if medical schools are making an effort to implement more inclusive technical standards.