Andrew Simmons’ research focuses on the role that the medical school admission process played in the development of the modern medical profession in the United States and its impact on women and African Americans who wanted to pursue medical careers. 

Following the 1910 Flexner report, medical schools reformed their admission process with the goal of selecting only the most qualified applicants for the profession. These reforms resulted in very small numbers of women and African Americans gaining acceptance to medical school before 1970. Simmons is particularly interested in how the increasingly time consuming and costly medical education process developed by the medical profession after 1910 became a barrier to entry for all but the wealthiest classes in American society.

CFH funding supported Simmons’ research at the Littlemeyer Archive at the headquarters for the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, DC.