Diversity

The Office of Medical Education is committed to increasing the number of qualified underrepresented minority residents and faculty at Summa Health System. The committee for underrepresented minorities is under the leadership of Dr. Yoleetah Ilodi.  The Office of Medical Education provides a supportive and inclusive environment for all and welcomes diversity in every aspect of daily operation.  Increasing diversity has been shown to improve patient satisfaction, access to care, and quality of care.  We firmly believe that attaining and retaining underrepresented physicians is critical to maintaining excellence in research, teaching, scholarship, and overall purpose of the Health System.

Programs

Dr. Russell Platt Clerkship

We acknowledge that minority physicians are underrepresented nationally, both in the practicing medical community and in the full-time academic medical community. Therefore, the Underrepresented Minority Committee in partnership with the Office of Medical Education created the Dr. Russell Platt Clerkship to improve recruitment of minority medical students as assurance that the diversity of future generations of healthcare leaders receives accurate representation, and as its pledge the needs of the underserved and underrepresented ethnic communities will be met.  We will expose minority 4^th year medical students to many career opportunities available in academic medicine and foster an environment of support and excellence. Students will be assigned an advisor and meet with both resident and staff physicians in their desired field. A monetary stipend will be offered to offset travel, food, and room and board.

Dr. Russell Platt, MD was a pioneer in the Summa Health System. He was one of the first African-American physicians to train within the system when he began his residency in 1961. He grew up in South Carolina and attended Meharry Medical School in Tennessee. His education at Summa helped him begin a long career in medicine in Akron, Ohio as a private practitioner. He always stated how the environment at Summa was open to him and to the diversification of medicine. Dr. Platt loved to walk the halls of the Akron Campus with a smile while he educated future practitioners of medicine.  This Clerkship is in his honor and in this video Dr. Platt speaks on his experience in the Summa Health System and the Community of Akron as a Private Practitioner.