May 7, 2026 / by Jay P. Greene
Patients Deserve
Patients Deserve
Medicine Rooted in
Evidence and Science,
Not Politics
THE CENTER FOR ACCOUNTABILITY IN MEDICINE
We are a project of Do No Harm that promotes excellence, transparency, and integrity in healthcare. Through data-driven research and public rankings, the Center empowers policy solutions grounded in evidence and equal opportunity — not ideology.
MEDICAL SCHOOL EXCELLENCE INDEX
Dozens of medical schools across the country have sacrificed excellence and merit for the pursuit of identity politics. Many push divisive, discriminatory ideas and practices onto their students.
The Center for Accountability in Medicine’s Medical School Excellence Index shines a light on these harmful practices, revealing which medical-education programs are putting identity politics over clinical excellence.
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:
- Admissions scores reflect matriculants’ MCAT and GPA, racial or ideological secondary screens, and PREview use.
- Transparency scores are determined whether schools feature differentiated grading systems and whether the school maintains a chapter of ΑΩΑ, the national honor medical society.
- DEI scores are determined by whether the school has an office or committee dedicated to DEI and the degree to which the school’s mission statement reflects an embrace or repudiation of DEI.
RESOURCES
February 23, 2026 / by Jay P. Greene
January 8, 2026 / by Scott Graves
IDENTITY POLITICS IN YOUR STATE
Find out if institutions, facilities, and programs in your backyard have adopted discriminatory practices or controversial ideologies.
ABOUT THE CENTER
From spurious claims to shoddy research, bad actors are using junk science to inject identity politics into every corner of healthcare. The notion that “diversity” initiatives improve patient health outcomes, or the notion that children benefit from dangerous sex-rejecting procedures, lack credible evidence.
That’s why we need to correct the record.
The Center for Accountability in Medicine, a project of Do No Harm, promotes excellence, transparency, and integrity in healthcare. Through data-driven research and public rankings, the Center empowers policy solutions grounded in evidence and equal opportunity — not ideology.
From medical schools to academic journals to healthcare associations and more, the Center ensures these institutions uphold scientific rigor, avoid discriminatory practices, and prioritize healthcare quality over political ideology.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices impact healthcare?
By definition, DEI places the interests of patients subordinate to regressive ideological goals. It implicitly – and often explicitly – treats the practice of medicine not as a means to treat patients, but as a vehicle to engineer desired social outcomes.
For example, it seeks to overcome different outcomes among racial and gender groups by actively discriminating in favor of some people and against others. Under the guise of increasing “diversity,” medical schools and other institutions engage in racial discrimination, excluding individuals based on racial background. Policies aimed at promoting “health equity” likewise favor certain racial groups over others.
These practices violate basic ethical principles, are fundamentally anti-science, and demonstrate a contempt for intellectual rigor. Moreover, they necessarily degrade the quality of medicine and medical education by prioritizing ideological goals over merit and excellence.
What is racial concordance?
Racial concordance refers to the dynamic when patients are treated by physicians of the same race. Many discriminatory hiring and admissions policies are (implicitly or explicitly) justified on the grounds that racial concordance improves health outcomes, thereby requiring medical institutions to hire or admit more physicians or students of certain racial groups. However, the notion that racial concordance improves health outcomes is not supported by the preponderance of existing evidence.
Why is it so harmful for children to undergo medical gender transition?
There is no credible evidence to support pediatric medical transition and its associated interventions (puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures) to treat gender dysphoria in minors. Moreover, these interventions can cause life-altering damage to children’s bodies including infertility, diminished bone density, and more.
Despite this, hospitals and clinics across the country subject children to these interventions while major medical associations have largely endorsed this regime.
These practices are not grounded in evidence-based medicine, but instead are ideologically motivated. By exposing the shoddy science behind these procedures –and the bad actors ignoring this lack of evidence – the Center works to protect children from these medical interventions.
What is “holistic review” in medical school admissions?
“Holistic review” is an approach to medical school admissions that devalues academic achievement to make room for other, less merit-based factors. This approach is often justified on the grounds of pursuing “equity” and other non-medical goals and outcomes. Do No Harm’s research has shown that many schools that profess to employ holistic review penalize certain racial groups in the admissions process. This is evidence that these schools are continuing to engage in racial discrimination, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that race-conscious admissions violate the Constitution.
Why is the focus on “social determinants of health” in medicine and healthcare concerning?
“Social determinants of health” or SDOH refer to social, economic, and environmental conditions that can be construed as influencing individuals’ health.
Although SDOH may be correlated with disparities in health outcomes, the evidence that SDOH cause or “determine” poor health outcomes is shoddy and weak, at best. Much of the scholarship on the topic confuses social and economic conditions that correlate with poor health outcomes with the actual causes of those outcomes, ignoring other factors such as individual agency and health decisions that contribute to health outcomes.
Despite this, proponents of the SDOH theory of healthcare seek to inject it into medical education and healthcare more broadly. This can be harmful to patients, as it focuses on abstract and opaque policy questions removed from the practice of medicine rather than focusing on patients’ individual needs.
How does the Center build upon Do No Harm’s existing work?
The Center expands and builds upon Do No Harm’s work to shed light on the influence of identity politics in medical education and clinical practice. Specifically, the Center’s focus is on using research, data, and public rankings to provide transparency and promote accountability.
How can I support the Center’s mission?
You can support the Center for Accountability in Medicine through a donation to Do No Harm.
If you wish to donate online, please use our donation page.
If you wish to donate via mailed check, our address is:
Do No Harm
2825 E Cottonwood Parkway, Suite 500
Salt Lake City, UT 84121
CONTACT US
Do No Harm is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. EIN: 87-4701865
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