Leadership roles in US surgery lack diversity, study finds

Surgical department leaders in the US do not reflect the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of the patients they treat, a study in JAMA Surgery by researchers at eight leading US medical centres has found.1Diversity in the physician workforce is recognised as necessary for better patient outcomes, yet US surgical leadership positions are not diverse and do not include doctors who come from groups that are underrepresented in medicine. These groups include women, African Americans, Asians, and Hispanic, Latino, or people of Spanish origin—and they tend to be clustered in roles that do not lead to department chairs.In an accompanying editorial Melina Kibbe, dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, said that diversifying the surgical workforce was crucial to improving patient outcomes.2“This is a deep and complex problem. In order to change this practice we must first acknowledge and overcome our implicit biases, and actively encourage women and…
Read Original Article: Leadership roles in US surgery lack diversity, study finds »