Benjamin G Case

• Master of Public Health
• Researcher at University of Wisconsin–Madison

This survey study assesses self-disclosures of disability, disability types, and accommodation needs reported by US allopathic medical schools in 2021 vs 2015 and 2019.

Medical students who underperform or find they are not a “good fit” for medicine have limited options. A terminal master's degree represents an exit alternative that recognizes students’ completed coursework and acknowledges their commitment to the medical sciences. Although medical educators have called for the creation of such programs, termed “c...

Introduction In 2019, 4.6% of US-MD students self-identified as students with disabilities (SWD); many of these students will require accommodations on the USMLE Step-1 examination. Given the high-stakes nature of Step-1 for medical school advancement and residency match, SWD denied accommodations on Step-1 face considerable consequences. To date n...

Introduction Technical standards document US medical school's nonacademic criteria necessary for admission, persistence, and graduation and communicate the school's commitment to disability inclusion and accommodation but are considered one of the largest barriers for students with disabilities. Calls for more inclusive technical standards have inc...

Purpose: To conduct a post-Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act multisite, multicohort study called the Pathways Project to assess the performance and trajectory of medical students with disabilities (SWD). Method: From June to December 2020, the authors conducted a matched cohort study of SWD and nondisabled controls from 2 graduating...

Background and objectives: Leading medical organizations including the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) espouse the value of a diverse physician workforce, including disability, yet there is a dearth of research about this population in graduate medical education (GME)...

Introduction: Leaders in medical education have expressed a commitment to increase medical student diversity, including those with disabilities. Despite this commitment there exists a large gap in the number of medical students self-reporting disability in anonymous demographic surveys and those willing to disclose and request accommodations at a...

Background and objectives: Increasing the diversity of family medicine residency programs includes matriculating residents with disabilities. Accrediting agencies and associations provide mandates and recommendations to assist programs with building inclusive policies and practices. The purpose of this study was (1) to assess programs' compliance...

Background This study aimed to evaluate and report the national prevalence of disability across undergraduate medical education (UME) and examine differences in the category of disability, and accommodation practices between allopathic (MD)- and osteopathic (DO)-granting programs. Methods Between May 20 and June 30, 2020, 75% of institutional repr...

Background: Graduate medical education (GME) institutions must ensure equal access for trainees with disabilities through appropriate and reasonable accommodations and policies. To date, no comprehensive review of the availability and inclusiveness of GME policies for residents with disabilities exists. Objective: We examined institutions' compl...

This survey study examined data from medical schools’ disability offices to estimate the proportion of students who disclose psychological disabilities.

In 2016, a survey found that 2.7% of US allopathic medical students disclosed a disability, which exceeded prior estimates.¹ Data from a follow-up survey, using the same methodology, were used to compare the prevalence of disability and accommodation practices between 2016 and 2019.

Healthcare guidelines play a prominent role in the day-to-day practice of primary care providers, and health policy research leads to the formation of these guidelines. Health policy research is the multidisciplinary approach to public policy explaining the interaction between health institutions, special interests and theoretical constructs. In th...

Students with sensory and physical disabilities are underrepresented in medical schools despite the availability of assistive technologies and accommodations. Unfortunately, many medical schools have adopted restrictive "organic" technical standards based on deficits rather than on the ability to do the work. Compelling ethical considerations of ju...

Purpose: Physician diversity improves care for underserved populations, yet there are few physicians with disabilities. The authors examined the availability of technical standards (TSs) from U.S. medical schools (MD- and DO-granting) and evaluated these relative to intent to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Method: Documen...

Current therapy for patients with hereditary absence of cochlear hair cells, who have severe or profound deafness, is restricted to cochlear implantation, a procedure that requires survival of the auditory nerve. Mouse mutations that serve as models for genetic deafness can be utilized for developing and enhancing therapies for hereditary deafness....

Figure S1

Assessing students who are deaf presents significant challenges in addition to the ones associated with testing in general. Confounding factors for testing deaf students include inconsistent understanding of what is an accommodation and what is a modification, proficiency in English, the test administrator's knowledge of the approach the student us...