Increasing Diversity in Cardiology: A Fellowship Director’s Perspective

Amman Bhasin,Randy Lieberman,Azar Razikeen,Luis C Afonso,Ajay Vaidya,Arif Musa,David Gelovani,Louis Massoud,Arshia Noori,Ali Ghandour

doi:10.7759/cureus.16344

Abstract

BackgroundUnderrepresented-minorities (URM) remain few in number amongst practicing cardiologists and across cardiology fellowship training programs in the U.S. Increased diversity is needed across the entire field and is particularly necessary within graduate medical education cardiology fellowship training programs.ObjectivesThis cross-sectional study was performed to identify which strategies were supported and implemented by cardiology fellowship program directors (PDs) to increase URM representation, to determine which entities hold the responsibility to increase diversity according to program directors, and to quantify URM representation in cardiology fellowship programs.MethodsA 15-item survey was submitted to all American College of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited cardiology fellowship programs via electronic mail.ResultsOf 250 cardiology fellowship programs, 71 responses were received (28.4%). The number of URM faculty varied from 0-1 to more than six, and URM faculty held leadership roles in most programs (62.0%). A total of 16 respondents (22.5%) were URM program directors. Most respondents agreed that diversity was important to their training program (85.9%). The majority endorsed direct recruitment of URM applicants (60.6%), opportunities for applicants to connect with (54.9%) or be recruited by URM fellows (54.9%), holistic application review (67.6%), promoting mentorship by URM faculty (69.0%), URM faculty involvement in applicant interviewing (54.9%), and increased recruitment of URM faculty members (73.2%). Program directors allocated major responsibility to increase diversity to fellowship programs (71.8%), residency programs (63.3%), and medical schools (53.5%).ConclusionsThis study found that most cardiology programs have URM faculty in leadership roles, and nearly a quarter of the surveyed program directors were URMs. Cardiology program directors endorsed and employed numerous strategies to increase diversity and URM representation in fellowship programs. Additionally, program directors held fellowship training programs most responsible for increasing URM representation in the field of cardiology.

Highlights

Underrepresented-minority (URM) physicians, African American, Native American, Hispanic, and/or Pacific Islander, constitute only about 10% of practicing cardiologists [1,2,3]
Underrepresented-minorities (URM) remain few in number amongst practicing cardiologists and across cardiology fellowship training programs in the U.S Increased diversity is needed across the entire field and is necessary within graduate medical education cardiology fellowship training programs
This study found that most cardiology programs have URM faculty in leadership roles, and nearly a quarter of the surveyed program directors were URMs

Summary

Introduction

Underrepresented-minority (URM) physicians, African American, Native American, Hispanic, and/or Pacific Islander, constitute only about 10% of practicing cardiologists [1,2,3]. Increased diversity in medical fields has been shown to contribute to improved overall patient experience, clinical care decisions, and quality of patient care [4,5]. Despite the advantages of having a diverse physician workforce, the field of cardiology has failed to keep pace with the increasingly diverse patient population of the United States [6]. Underrepresented-minorities (URM) remain few in number amongst practicing cardiologists and across cardiology fellowship training programs in the U.S Increased diversity is needed across the entire field and is necessary within graduate medical education cardiology fellowship training programs

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Discussion

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