Ensuring incoming cohorts of medical students better represent the diversity of Indigenous communities in Canada

Medical schools have devised several strategies to increase indigenous representation in incoming cohorts, including establishing application streams for indigenous people and increasing emphasis on holistic appraisal of applicants. Although improving the application process is important, this intervention does not address a fundamental problem: indigenous students pursuing a medical career face the vast majority of their challenges and barriers long before applying to medical school. Here, Brisebois and Cardinal discuss the underrepresentation of indigenous students in Canadian medical schools and propos strategies to increase their representation.