Watch for this column, developed byHirschel D. McGinnis, MD, to appear ineach issue of IR Quarterly.
Beginning with this issue, IR Quarterly will regularly dedicate space focusing on aspects of diversity and inclusiveness (D&I) within SIR and interventional radiology. Over the past 3 years, D&I has become a priority of SIR leadership. The D&I Advisory Group, led by Harjit Singh, MD, FSIR, aims to expand diversity in IR based on sex, race, ethnicity, gender identity and sexual orientation and to weave a respect and appreciation for diversity into the cultural fabric of SIR.
Currently, a little more than 50% of students entering U.S. medical schools are female. Underrepresented minorities represent approximately 15% of medical school graduates, and sexual and gender minorities make up 7.2%. Allowing for overlap, these groups comprise significantly more than half of U.S. medical school graduates.
However, these populations aren’t similarly reflected in the demographics of IR residents, fellows or attendings. SIR leadership believes that, if IR is to continue attracting top medical students, efforts to improve diversity and inclusiveness are moral and strategic imperatives.
SIR and its D&I Advisory Group are firmly committed to leaving no clinical talent uncultivated and no patient population unserved. We believe that, by fulfilling these commitments, we will maintain IR’s strong leadership role in innovative, effective, high-value, patient-centered care in the years ahead.
This first entry in “The commitment,” below, is adapted from a session overview that first appeared in SIR Today (see bit.ly/2Ge1Pon for the full article).
At the SIR 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting in Austin, a talk focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) interventional radiologists—a first for a national SIR meeting. In the “Why dIveRsity” session, Hirschel D. McGinnis, MD (Steward Medical Group, Boston), examined workforce and pipeline considerations from the LGBTQ perspective.
Dr. McGinnis provided an overview of the demographics of the LGBTQ population in the United States in terms of age, gender, economics and relationship status. From there, he presented the known data as well as the significant data gaps that exist in understanding the size and work experience of LGBTQ physicians and medical students.
In the last 3 years, the Association of American Medical College’s annual survey of graduating medical school students has included questions regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. The number of people self-reporting as LGBTQ has increased from 5.5% to 7.2% in just 2 years, representing a 31% increase.
Dr. McGinnis then reviewed the 2016 Yale School of Medicine study “Specialty Choice Among Sexual and Gender Minorities in Medicine: The Role of Specialty Prestige, Perceived Inclusion and Medical School Climate.” This groundbreaking study analyzed predictors of specialty choice among sexual and gender minority (SGM) students. It determined that the more prestigious a medical specialty is (as measured by an objective index), the less likely that specialty is perceived to be inclusive by SGMs. The percentage of SGMs in each specialty was inversely related to perceived prestige and positively related to perceived SGM inclusivity.
“I believe that competitiveness may operate as a proxy for prestige, and we know that IR is at top of the list when it comes to competitiveness,” Dr. McGinnis said. “We might have a problem.”
According to the study, the most welcoming specialties were psychiatry, family medicine, pediatrics, preventative medicine and internal medicine/pediatrics; the least welcoming were orthopedics, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, general surgery and colorectal surgery.
“In which column do you see interventional radiology? It’s a strategic imperative that we get IR into the ‘most welcoming’ column. Our future depends on it,” Dr. McGinnis said.
Many significant data gaps exist in other areas. Dr. McGinnis said that, for example, nobody has produced solid research about how many LGBTQ physicians there are in the United States, let alone the number of LGBTQ IRs. Quality data is also lacking on the work experiences of LGBTQ physicians.
“Someone has to fill in these data gaps. Who better than SIR to lead the way? What a great opportunity for research,” Dr. McGinnis said.
