ASO Author Reflections: Advancing Racial Diversity and Gender Equity in Surgical Oncology Training: Addressing Imbalances and Building Inclusion

Excerpt

Lagging racial and gender diversity in surgical training has been a topic of ongoing discussion and progress.¹ Fortunately, there has been a recent concerted effort to address this imbalance. To highlight one example at the surgical societal level, the Society of Surgical Oncology formed the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory group in December 2018 with the ultimate goal of improving provider diversity within the field of surgical oncology.² Efforts such as this aim to create a stronger, more inclusive, and equitable healthcare workforce that better reflects the diverse patient population it serves. Our current study investigated the recent national trends in racial, ethnic, and gender populations within Accredited Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited Complex General Surgical Oncology fellowship training programs and analyzed how they compared with the demographics of pipeline general surgery residency training programs and the overall resident trainee workforce complement. …