our mission & vision accessible pre-health shadowing for all
Transforming the future of healthcare through accessible shadowing and impactful mentorship
understanding barriers
We can’t efficiently expand access to pre-health shadowing without understanding the shadowing barriers disproportionately impacting students from particular backgrounds.
According to a survey released in our first year, 66% of pre-health students at the University of Florida had NO shadowing experience.
We identified three primary barriers impacting all students from participating in traditional, in-person shadowing:
barrier 1
Lack of knowledge and guidance
71% of survey respondents indicated that a lack of knowledge and guidance prevented them from gaining in-person shadowing experience
barrier 2
Academic obligations
60% of survey respondents indicated that academic obligations prevented them from gaining in-person shadowing experience
barrier 3
Inability to reach a healthcare professional
26% of survey respondents indicated that they were unable to gain in-person shadowing experience due to their inability to successfully get in contact with a healthcare professional
other barriers
Non-academic obligations, transportation issues, wardrobe concerns
Students indicated that non-academic obligations (i.e. caring for family, work), transportation issues, and wardrobe concerns prevented them from gaining in-person shadowing experience
expanding access
Taking into account the barriers impacting pre-health students, Medi-Futures is making an effort to overcome these barriers. How?
- Our virtual format allows for an unlimited number of students to be accommodated
- Offering both live and recorded shadowing presentations means students can shadow at their convenience – no specific schedule is required
- Virtual shadowing does not require any particular transportation or wardrobe
- Medi-Futures is provided at no cost to students
In it’s first two years as Medi-Gators, Medi-Futures has successfully provided a shadowing platform for thousands of University of Florida students.
407% increase in pre-health shadowing participation in 1 academic year when compared to in-person shadowing
1,600+ students virtually shadowing at a single institution each semester
8,000+ unique participants since our program began in the Fall of 2020; that’s about 1/3 of the pre-health student population at UF
Pre-health pipeline
The accessibility of Medi-Futures facilitates our ability to enhance the pre-health pipeline. Our characterization of shadowing barriers included an analysis of education background, socio-economic status, and more. The statistics represented below come from both AAMC data as well as data collected by Medi-Futures on University of Florida pre-health students.
According to AAMC data from 2018, the physician workforce is predominately White (56.2%) and male (64.1%), while only 11.2% of the physician workforce in 2018 identified as an underrepresented race (i.e. American-Indian or Alaska Native, Black, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander).
In addition, the AAMC estimates that only 12% of 2021 medical school matriculants were first-generation college students.
PRE-HEALTH STUDENTS WITH NO SHADOWING EXPERIENCE:
underrepresented race
63%
first-generation students
66%
students whose family income is less than $45,000
66%
MEDI-FUTURES PARTICIPANTS (from the University of Florida)
30% underrepresented races
27% first-generation students
26% pell-grant recipients
79% women
efficient health career exposure
- Rapid and broad exposure facilitates efficient career selection
- In a 6-week period, students shadow 36+ healthcare professionals via zoom
- Our speakers represent more than 27 health careers and 42 medical specialties
- Rapid exposure:
- Encourages students to ponder desired qualities in a career
- Facilitates student selection of a desirable career path sooner, thereby allowing students to focus efforts on pursuit of that career (whether in healthcare or not)
- Broad exposure improves interdisciplinary collaboration via appreciation for many professionals within our healthcare system
- Medi-Futures is beneficial for students with uncertain career paths as well as for students with more defined career paths