C.L. Cui1, W.Y. Luo2, C. Jing1, T.T. Chun1, S.K. Agarwal1, Y. Kim1 1Duke University Medical Center, Surgery, Durham, NC, USA 2University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Surgery, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Introduction:
Asians are considered an overrepresented minority group in medicine, relative to overall US population demographics. However, Asian representation within surgical residency programs has not been previously investigated.
Methods:
Annual Graduate Medical Education (GME) data reports were reviewed for demographic data on surgical trainees from 2013 to 2022. Sixteen surgical specialties were examined. Linear regression analysis was used to analyze annual trends in Asian representation.
Results:
The study population included 1,296,204 resident physicians from 108,193 training programs over a ten-year study period. Of these, 350,417 (27.0%) individuals self-identified as Asian race. Asian trainees were underrepresented in fifteen of sixteen surgical specialties compared with all ACGME-accredited programs (p<0.05 each). Asian representation was lowest in orthopedic surgery (12.9±0.1%), surgical critical care (13.1±0.7%), and pediatric surgery (15.4%±0.8%) (p<0.0001 vs all programs). (Table 1, showing five specialities with the lowest percentage of Asian trainees) Only ophthalmology had higher Asian representation (31.0±0.6%, p<0.0001) compared with the aggregate trainee population. On linear regression analysis, Asian representation has declined among total ACGME-accredited programs at rate of 0.2% annually (R2=0.82, p<0.0001). Seven surgical specialties experienced an annual decline in Asian representation over the past decade, including cardiothoracic surgery (traditional), colorectal surgery, complex general surgical oncology, general surgery, ophthalmology, plastic surgery (traditional), and vascular surgery (traditional) (p<0.05 each). Similar representation is seen among the current surgical workforce.
Conclusion:
Asians representation among surgical specialties does not match Asian representation in medical school. Trend analysis suggests that this discrepency has grown wider over the past decade. Mixed methods analyses are needed to better understand reasons for these findings.