AMA Under Fire for ‘Replacing One Racial Preference With Another’
28th October 2026
The American Medical Association Foundation has revived racial preferences in its scholarships for medical students, the watchdog Do No Harm alleges.
Do No Harm sent a letter to the IRS in April, noting that some of the foundation’s scholarships explicitly stated that only medical students of certain races qualify. While the foundation initially removed the scholarship opportunities from its website, it appears to have restored them.
“Simply put, these valuable and lucrative scholarship opportunities cannot be awarded based on race,” Dr. Kurt Miceli, chief medical officer at Do No Harm, told the Daily Signal in a statement Tuesday.
“The AMA Foundation has done little to remedy the substantial problems identified in our original complaint regarding its Physicians of Tomorrow program,” Miceli said. “Months later, race-based scholarships remain in place, having undergone only superficial changes.”
The AMA Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the largest professional association of physicians and medical students in the United States. Its Physicians of Tomorrow program provides scholarships for medical school students.