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Doctors argue for term limits to diversify medical school leadership

In a new paper, a group of doctors argues that medical schools should impose term limits on department chairs and deans to bring in more diverse perspectives.

Earlier this year, the National Institutes of Health announced that the agency’s nearly 300 laboratory and branch chiefs will be limited to 12-year terms to increase the gender and racial diversity among leadership. But in general, the idea of term limits to encourage diversity has been slow to catch on in other research settings, especially medical schools.

Among department chairs and other leaders in academic medicine, there is a large gender and racial disparity: Women make up only 18% of medical school deans, while those from other underrepresented minority groups account for 12% of deans.

A new published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine argues that

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