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An analysis of trends in racial diversity amongst US integrated plastic surgery applicants: a Cleveland Clinic institutional look
DeAsia Jacob, MD; William "Tripp" Leavitt III, MD; James Zins, MD
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
2021-02-12
Presenter: DeAsia Jacob, MD
Affidavit:
The work submitted here has not been presented at another major meeting and is the original work of the submitting resident.
Director Name: Steven Bernard, MD
Author Category: Resident Plastic Surgery
Presentation Category: Clinical
Abstract Category: General Reconstruction
Several groups have examined the changes in the racial diversity of US plastic surgery residents and have found a similar outcome – Caucasians comprise the largest racial group of residents. When evaluating national data since 1966 there has been no statistically significant increase in African-American plastic surgery residents. Similar trends exist among other underrepresented racial groups. This is important because it translates to our patients where ASPS data shows that African-American and Hispanic people contribute to a large portion of both cosmetic and reconstructive procedures. We sought to examine if the Cleveland Clinic Integrated Plastic Surgery Residency trends in racial diversity differed from 2016 to 2019. Self-identified race data from applicants to the integrated plastic surgery residency program were obtained. When comparing the number of Caucasian to African-American applicants over this time period, the number of Caucasian applicants was significantly higher compared to African-Americans in each year (p<0.05). Similar results were obtained when comparing Caucasian applicants to Hispanic, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, for all p<0.05. When you look at the data across this time period there was no statistically significant difference among ethnic groups over the years, p=1.0, indicating that at the Cleveland Clinic, we're at a standstill. Many reasons for this disparity have been proposed in the literature and several of these likely are true for applicants to the Cleveland Clinic. This information can be used to help identify areas for improvement in our goal to diversify the plastic surgery workforce to better match our multicultural population.
