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

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Team: 

Research Manager: Ben Case

PI: Lisa Meeks 

Analysts: Kurt Herzer, Missy Plegue 

Researchers: Bonnie Swenor

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Publications: 

Meeks, L. M., & Herzer, K. R. (2016). Prevalence of self-disclosed disability among medical students in US allopathic medical schools. Jama, 316(21), 2271-2272.

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Meeks LM, Case B, Herzer K, Plegue M, Swenor BK. Change in Prevalence of Disabilities and Accommodation Practices Among US Medical Schools, 2016 vs 2019. Jama. 2019 Nov 26;322(20):2022-4.

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Meeks LM, Plegue M, Case B, Swenor B, Sen S. Disclosure of psychological disability in medical education. JAMA Open, 2020;3(7):e2011165.

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Meeks LM, Case B, Plegue M, Moreland CJ, Jain S, Taylor N. National prevalence of disability and clinical accommodations in medical education. J Med Educ Curric Dev, 2020;7:1-4. 

Building a pathway for the biomedical workforce

Success and attrition among deaf healthcare students and professionals: Describing an underrepresented minority segment of the healthcare workforce. 

PI: Chris Moreland, Co-PI: Lisa Meeks

The Pathway Project 

Performance and trajectory of medical students with disabilities

12 institutions

January 2020-May 2020

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Co-PI's: Lisa Meeks, PhD and Michael Kim MD

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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

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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

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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.

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TEAM:

Lisa Meeks, PhD

Elisa Laird, JD

Maher Budron

Sarah Pancino

US-DO

Programs

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Prevalence 

Study

Team: 

PI: Lisa Meeks 

Co-I: Ben Case

Analyst: Missy Plegue 

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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

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Meeks LM, Case B, Plegue M, Moreland CJ, Jain S, Taylor N. National prevalence of disability and clinical accommodations in medical education. J Med Educ Curric Dev, 2020;7:1-4. 

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.