“An Evaluation of Race Disparities in Academic Plastic Surgery”
From the Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Received for publication December 27, 2018; accepted June 13, 2019.
Copyright © 2019 by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons
DOI: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000006376
OVERVIEW
Overall minority presence in academic plastic surgery has fallen 0.4%. Senior leadership positions are still disproportionately White. Asians are 17% of academic plastic surgeons but only 5.8% of the general population…
But Black academic surgeons are 1.7% of the field and 13.4% of the population. Hispanic academic surgeons are 5.3% of the field and 18.1% of the population. Blacks and Hispanics are significantly underrepresented.
There are some positive signs.
Minority academic plastic surgeons are more likely than White to have attained additional degrees, such as an MBA, or to have completed clinical fellowship training.
Despite the decrease in the number of minority individuals in academic plastic surgery, the number of minorities who hold full professorships has been steady.
This indicates that even though they may have “faced stark challenges obstructing entry into the field and prohibiting advancement to senior academic positions,” there is a powerful cohort of minorities in academic plastic surgery. These individuals have the potential to be role models and mentors for upcoming professionals.
Data indicates that historically, minorities have been concentrated in academic positions that are lower on the hierarchy. When a department chair is a minority, there is, however, a more even distribution of minorities across promotion levels.
Analysis that adjusted for years of experience showed that professional advancement is strongly associated with time in the field.
This information, coupled with the understanding that minority leadership leads to more even promotion, gives hope that the current generation of young professionals will rise to leadership positions and rebalance the current inequity.
Areas to consider for research and intervention should address the current disparity in promotions, efforts to advance current practitioners, and investigation of the root causes that obstruct minorities in the field.
View the full article here.
