A report just released by the group Do No Harm finds that eight major medical organizations and accreditors have changed or abandoned DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) requirements for their member institutions. Some of them named in the report include The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Psychological Association's Commission on Accreditation (APA-CoA).
Dr. Kurt Miceli is medical director for Do No Harm. "We're seeing some really good progress in a short amount of time," he tells AFN. "It was just three months ago when President Trump issued an executive order on reforming accreditation, and the landscape has really changed for the better."
That executive order, signed on April 23, 2025, reminded schools that they are bound by civil rights law, and that they are not able to have policies that favor certain groups above others. The EO specifically directed officials within the administration to take actions necessary to "terminate unlawful discrimination by American medical schools or graduate medical education entities," to include unlawful DEI requirements "under the guise of accreditation standards."
Miceli is encouraged by the progress because, as he points out, accreditors "hold enormous power" over institutional policies and operations. "They set education guidelines, they establish the framework of education that one would receive, and [they] really determine [which] schools can and can't grant degrees," he explains.
According to Miceli, in the past many of these accreditors have complicated any efforts to get rid of DEI. But now that those discriminatory practices are getting taken out, Miceli said the institutions can focus on what they should be focused on: the quality of the education they are delivering to the students they have.
"I think it opens an avenue to allow schools to really move forward in meaningful reform," says the Do No Harm spokesman. "[But] again, it's just a first step."
Still more work is to be done, he concludes, urging the institutions to prioritize merit as the guiding principle.
