The 2019 General Assembly legislative session clarified MED's authority to disclose aggregate demographic information of licensees. Any of this information collected historically has only been used for purposes of verifying identity. Furthermore, the data fields for race/ethnicity and gender on MED applications have been optional.
As MED has continued to engage in discussions around social equity initiatives, MED staff members have periodically received requests to review demographic data. In response to such requests and in light of legislative updates clarifying the MED's authority to collect and share demographic data on an aggregate basis, the MED is re-initiating its efforts to obtain this information from applicants on a voluntary basis.
In conjunction with these data collection efforts that may also inform ongoing social equity discussions, MED staff also initiated a manual review of applications culminating in 2018 to provide initial data points. We believe this 2018 data, while incomplete, can inform broader social equity conversations and provide some useful context for understanding the social equity picture.