The American Gastroenterological Association received National Institutes of Health funding to support its AGA Forward Program.
Here's what you should know:
1. The AGA Forward Program: Fostering Opportunities Resulting in Workforce and Research Diversity aims to support underrepresented physician scientists in gastroenterology.
2. As of 2007, only 3.2 of gastroenterology fellows were African American and 8.5 percent were Hispanic. Only 16 percent of fellows were women, despite 47 percent of all U.S. medical students being women.
3. The AGA Forward Program will attempt to increase diversity by providing training and mentoring.
4. The program will be made available to two 10-person cohorts through a five-year grant. Application details will be released this fall.
5. AGA chair Sheila Crowe, MD, will serve as the program's principal investigator.