Diversity at Memorial Sloan Kettering: A Website Audit
This paper presents a structured diversity audit of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) website, evaluating how the institution communicates its commitment to diversity to patients, employees, and suppliers. The analysis examines the site's visual representations, navigation structure, and search results related to diversity, with particular focus on the Office of Diversity Programs in Clinical Care, Research, and Training. The paper considers how the site would be perceived by prospective employees from minority backgrounds, potential patients, and subcontractors, and reflects on management decisions that shape how diversity is projected online. Supporting academic literature on healthcare disparities informs the broader argument that MSK's public-facing materials align with meaningful institutional action.
- Introduction: Website Overview: Layout and navigation of the MSK website
- First Contact: Visual Diversity on the Homepage: Diversity signaled through homepage videos and imagery
- The Office of Diversity Programs and Related Content: MSK's dedicated diversity office and search findings
- Usefulness of the Site for Diverse Stakeholders: Site value for employees, patients, and suppliers
- Management, Awards, and Institutional Image: How management shapes diversity projection and recognition
- Why a Minority Applicant Would Want to Work at Sloan Kettering: Personal assessment from a minority applicant perspective
- Conclusion: Summary of MSK's diversity commitment and appeal
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its diversity analysis in concrete, observable website elements — specific videos, navigation menus, and search results — rather than making abstract claims, giving the argument a clear empirical foundation.
- It moves logically from surface-level observations (homepage visuals) to deeper institutional evidence (the Office of Diversity Programs), creating a layered audit structure.
- The paper incorporates peer-reviewed literature on healthcare disparities to contextualize MSK's diversity initiatives, lending academic credibility to what might otherwise read as a descriptive walkthrough.
- It evaluates the site from multiple stakeholder perspectives — potential employee, patient, and supplier — demonstrating analytical breadth.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied evaluative analysis: the writer uses a real organizational artifact (a public website) as primary evidence and systematically assesses it against an external framework (diversity criteria). Secondary sources on healthcare disparities are integrated to validate the significance of what MSK is doing institutionally, connecting descriptive observation to broader scholarly context.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a functional description of the website's layout, then narrows progressively — from homepage visuals to a search-engine–driven exploration of diversity content, to the Office of Diversity Programs, and finally to stakeholder-specific assessments. A separate section addresses management and image projection before a personal reflection on minority employment appeal closes the body. A brief conclusion synthesizes all threads. This funnel structure moves effectively from general to specific to evaluative.
Introduction: Website Overview
The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City is "the world's oldest and largest private cancer center" (About Us, 2016) and maintains a website that is accessible to all users. Its home page displays a series of alternating full-screen banner videos that rotate beneath a simple tab navigation system at the top of the page. The Center's logo appears in the top left-hand corner, and opposite it in the right-hand corner is another series of tab options: Giving — Location — Find a Doctor — Appointments — Contact Us — followed by a search option.
Below this is a Patient Login Access link in the main toolbar, alongside larger direct links for users consisting of the following tabs: For Adult Patients — For Child & Teen Patients — For Healthcare Professionals — For Research Scientists — and More options. Each tab opens a menu linking directly to more precise locations on the website. For example, scrolling over the For Child & Teen Patients tab reveals a Cancer Care directory, a Your Experience directory, an Our Location directory, and an Insurance & Assistance directory. Below this menu appear easy-access links: Find a Doctor — Make an Appointment — Visitor Information — and FAQ.
The purpose of this assessment is to examine the website's display of diversity and how diversity is manifested across its pages. The description above has outlined the site's simple layout; a more direct analysis of its adherence to a diversity theme follows.
First Contact: Visual Diversity on the Homepage
On first contact with the site, the initial video in the rotating banner features an African-American woman patient speaking with a female physician, who pats the patient reassuringly on the shoulder; the patient nods, closes her eyes, and smiles. The video then transitions to one of a middle-aged white male happily locating the correct sample for his work. The third video depicts a younger white woman — though perhaps of mixed ethnicity — conducting a laboratory test using high-tech equipment. The phrase that remains on screen over each of the rotating videos is: "Specializing in You."
These videos are the first indication that Sloan Kettering takes diversity seriously. The fact that three of the four human beings depicted are female, and one is a clear racial minority, signals that the facility is committed to serving a diverse population. This makes it attractive to a broad audience — an approach that is no doubt central to its outreach success in a city as diverse as New York.
To explore the extent to which the site supports diversity beyond these opening visuals, it is necessary to use the search engine tool in the top right-hand corner of the toolbar, as there is no direct navigation link to diversity-related materials. Typing "diversity" into the search engine returns 1,840 possible results, and the first entry in the top ten is a link to the site's Office of Diversity Programs page.
The Office of Diversity Programs and Related Content
Clicking the Office of Diversity Programs link leads to a page describing the Office's purpose and activities. The full name of the Office is Memorial Sloan Kettering's Office of Diversity Programs in Clinical Care, Research, and Training (ODP). It was established in 2005 "to address disparities in cancer outcomes based on race, ethnicity, cultural differences, and socioeconomic status" (Office of Diversity Programs, 2016).
Disparities in research outcomes are a well-documented issue that researchers have addressed extensively (Benjamins & Whitman, 2014; Browne, Varcoe, Wong, Smye, & Khan, 2014; Grace, Kara, Kennedy, & McDonald, 2014). It is therefore encouraging to see that Sloan Kettering has devoted a dedicated Office to this issue and that it has been in operation for more than ten years. This represents the clearest indication that the institution is committed to diversity in practice, not merely in words and imagery.
The recognition that disparities exist in cancer outcomes across categories of race, ethnicity, culture, and socioeconomic status is an important one. Specialized focus on these variables is necessary to provide appropriate care for each individual, since not all treatment methods are equally effective or appropriate across different populations. Khankeh et al. (2015) have shown that conducting research on this issue is challenging because social prejudices can frame any specialized focus on race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status as a form of bias — when in reality, failing to examine these variables can be more detrimental to the delivery of adequate care.
Other links returned by the "diversity" search include a page within the Immigrant Health & Cancer Disparities Service entitled "Increasing Diversity in Cancer Research," and a page within the Office of Diversity Programs entitled "Training," which describes Sloan Kettering's commitment to "institution-wide and program-specific minority recruitment initiatives, many of which are focused on developing the 'pipeline' of minority researchers and professionals in oncology" (Training, 2016). Numerous additional links reinforce the conclusion that the institution is highly devoted to the cause of diversity in healthcare.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is clear that Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is committed to diversity both in how it projects its image on its website and in how it supports that image with institutional action — through the promotion of minorities to leadership positions and the establishment of the Office of Diversity Programs, which is dedicated to studying how diversity affects medical research and healthcare outcomes. The site provides substantial evidence that Sloan Kettering values diversity, making it appealing to individuals seeking an accepting environment where all persons are welcomed and recognized for their contributions. For anyone considering a career in healthcare, Sloan Kettering would stand out as an attractive employer because of its location in one of the most diverse cities in the country, its genuine dedication to diversity initiatives, and its consistently inclusive public image.
References
About Us. (2016). Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Retrieved from https://www.mskcc.org/about
Benjamins, M., & Whitman, S. (2014). Relationships between discrimination in health care and health care outcomes among four race/ethnic groups. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 37, 402–413.
Browne, A., Varcoe, C., Wong, S., Smye, V., & Khan, K. (2014). Can ethnicity data collected at an organizational level be useful in addressing health and healthcare inequities? Ethnicity & Health, 19(2), 240–254.
Grace, B. S., Kara, T., Kennedy, S. E., & McDonald, S. P. (2014). Racial disparities in pediatric kidney transplantation in New England. Pediatric Transplantation, 18, 689–697.
Khankeh, H. et al. (2015). Challenges in conducting qualitative research in health: A conceptual paper. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 20(6), 635–641.
Office of Diversity Programs. (2016). Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Retrieved from
Training. (2016). Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Retrieved from
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