About DM3P

Vector illustration of adults with diverse disability types, skin colors, hair textures, and body types. Includes two individuals with higher body weight, a woman using a walker, a woman wearing a mask, a woman with psoriasis, a man in a wheelchair, a man with a head covering, and woman with low vision using a white cane and guide dog.

The Disability in Medicine Mutual Mentorship Program (DM3P) is a grassroots organization that supports disabled medical professionals & trainees as they navigate the field of medicine. Through monthly virtual gatherings, our members build self-advocacy skills and exchange disability-specific career advice among a supportive community of healthcare workers with disabilities. The program welcomes persons with disability and their allies from across all healthcare professions and from all stages of training.

JOIN US!

We welcome current, future and former healthcare professionals and trainees with disabilities and chronic illness, along with allies of healthcare workers with disabilities.

Why Does This Program Exist?

People with disability are underrepresented in medicine (URiM).
Disabled clinicians regularly confront ableism, i.e., structural and attitudinal barriers to their inclusion and advancement in their chosen professions.
Clinicians with disability need role models, peers, and a platform for advocacy to help them challenge ableist barriers.
physician with stethoscope draped over his right shoulder sitting in wheelchair

Why Mutual Mentorship?

Mutual mentorship is a model of mentorship in which participants assemble in groups to support one another through problems encountered while navigating life with a shared marginalized identity. Instead of assigning formal mentor-mentee pairings, this model encourages each participant to serve in both the mentor and the mentee role per their lived experiences. This model is ideal for our community because the disabled identity can emerge at any point in the human lifespan. As a result, a person’s level of experience navigating medicine with a disability often doesn’t correlate with their stage of professional training.

What Do We Offer?

Monthly Zoom meetings featuring guest speakers, opportunities to discuss disability-related issues in medicine in small and large groups, and unstructured social time
Accommodations at all meetings. CART captioning and auto captioning are at all meetings by default. Other accommodations such as ASL interpretation are provided to participants who request this via email ahead of time
Private Discord group for additional, asynchronous online discussions and mentorships
Private LinkedIn group for professional networking
Archive of resources from past events (see our “News & Events” page)
Leadership opportunities for participants who wish to take an active role organizing events for this program
Female sitting at a workspace using a computer to video call with multiple people