Ohio takes the lead: "Speaking the cultural language of the population you're serving"

In a first-of-its-kind initiative, OhioHealth, a network of hospitals is collaborating with Ohio University's College of Osteopathic Medicine to recruit doctors earlier than the norm. Hoping to retain them after they graduate, the hospital system will assign mentors to minority first-year students who will take them through their education.

The long term hope? To ensure that a majority of the mentees decide to stay on as full time doctors and diversify the hospitals' ethnic makeup. With diversity an issue nationwide in the health care system, efforts are beginning to surface everywhere to boost minority enrollment as well as graduation levels.

Besides the mentorship, selected students will receive $500 annually for expenses and an additional $10,000 in loan forgiveness for every year they serve their residency with the OhioHealth network. While the network does not have official numbers, it is obvious that African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans are underrepresented.

Ohio takes the lead, whose next?