CHEST INITIATIVES

Advancing Clinician Diversity Through Mentorship

Improving patient care with educational opportunities for all

February 21, 2025 | VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1

Mentorship is a well-established tool to enhance education and career development, but not all clinicians have access to mentors in their chosen field.

CHEST has spoken out to reiterate on the record our firm commitment to the necessity of diversity, equity, and inclusion in health care research, education, and delivery.

Decades of scientific research show that a lack of clinician diversity worsens health disparities. For patients from historically underserved communities, having clinicians who share similar lived experiences leads to significant improvements in outcomes.

To support a more diverse medical pipeline, CHEST is working to advance training and build connections for clinicians from historically underserved communities.

“Mentorship is essential when pursuing medicine, especially for individuals who have been traditionally underrepresented.”

Fostering the next generation of medical educators

In 2023, CHEST and the Association of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Program Directors partnered on a first-of-its-kind mentorship program pairing an established mentor with a pulmonary and critical care medicine (PCCM) fellow. Created to improve diversity in respiratory care, this two-part award is intended for individuals with a record of supervising and mentoring PCCM trainees who intend to pursue a career in medical education.

“Mentorship is essential when pursuing medicine, especially for individuals who have been traditionally underrepresented in medicine, because, all too often, mentor opportunities come from connections that some do not have,” said 2023 CHEST President, Doreen Addrizzo-Harris, MD, FCCP. “Through this fellowship, we are able to connect individuals who could be mutually beneficial to one another and who otherwise potentially would have never met.”

The first recipient of the mentoring fellowship opportunity was Esha Kapania, MD, a fellow-in-training at the University of Louisville, who had the opportunity to work closely with Başak Çoruh, MD, FCCP, Associate Professor of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine and Director of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship program at the University of Washington.

Esha Kapania, MD

For 2025, Tristan Huie, MD, FCCP, and Anna Neumeier, MD, will serve as co-mentors to Arnulfo Duarte, DO, a first-year fellow in the inaugural class of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship program at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler.

Arnulfo Duarte, DO

“We enthusiastically embrace the opportunity to mentor a future educational leader to improve the diversity of the PCCM medical education community,” Dr. Neumeier said. “We have a lot to offer a mentee, as our research mentorship process is multidimensional to support career development. In addition to co-mentoring, it includes additional support with a scholarship advisory committee, clear productivity expectations, training in educational scholarship, and feedback on teaching skills.”

Leveraging the annual meeting to improve mentorship and diversity

CHEST also offers travel grants to bring clinicians-in-training to the renowned CHEST Annual Meeting, which offers attendees top-of-the-line educational and networking opportunities.

Over the past five years, CHEST Travel Grants have helped send 130 early career clinicians to the CHEST Annual Meeting, allowing them to experience the camaraderie of the CHEST community, stay up to date on the latest advancements in medicine, and create new relationships with like-minded health care professionals.

“We enthusiastically embrace the opportunity to mentor a future educational leader.”

To make the most of their meeting experience, travel grant recipients are each paired with a mentor to guide them through the meeting.

At CHEST 2023 in Honolulu, travel grant recipient, Andres Mora Carpio, MD, was paired with Hassan Bencheqroun, MD, FCCP, a pulmonary and critical care specialist in San Diego, CA. The two took their mentoring relationship well beyond the annual meeting, working together to navigate professional goals. Dr. Bencheqroun helped Dr. Mora Carpio utilize artificial intelligence to improve his efficiency so he could spend more time with his family during his fellowship.

Andres Mora Carpio, MD

With these newfound skills, Dr. Mora Carpio went on to become Chief Fellow in his program, secure an interventional pulmonary (IP) fellowship, and start IP research projects. At the same time as he is accomplishing his professional goals, he finds himself happy at home.

“I'm very grateful for this grant. It changed my life, honestly,” Dr. Mora Carpio said. “It gave me things that I wouldn't have been able to achieve on my own or would've taken me years to accomplish. The time I have to be with my family... There are no words to say how amazing that is.”