C.P. Bowers1, C.E. Nembhard1, T.M. Fullum1, D. Tran1, A.M. Lin1, M.C. Tee1 1Howard University College Of Medicine, Department Of Surgery, Washington, DC, USA
Introduction: Increasing representation of minority surgeons is an important step to eliminating health care disparities. We aim to examine the history and educational outcomes of surgical trainees from a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) surgical training program over 50 years.
Methods: The records of 289 graduates from an HBCU fully accredited general surgery residency program were queried from 1969 to 2025. Demographic data such as sex, race, ethnicity, and medical school graduation were collected. Educational outcomes such as academic productivity, pursuance of fellowship, board certification, fellowship into the American College of Surgeons (ACS), and type of practice (academic/hybrid/private) were collected. We compared an early (1970-1995) to late (1996-2020) cohort to trend these educational outcomes.
Results: Overall, there were 236 (85%) Black, 78 (27%) Female, 170 (59%) Black Male, 212 (78%) American medical graduates, and 9 (3%) Hispanic surgical graduates with 177 (68%) pursuing fellowship training, 215 (84%) maintaining board certification, and 84 (34%) pursuing an academic position at some point in their career. There was a mean of 12 PubMed-indexed papers published per graduate. Comparing early to late cohorts, we found: decreased Black graduates (90% vs. 80%, P=0.031), decreased Black Male graduates (72% vs 47%, P<0.001), increased Female graduates (16% vs 39%, P<0.001), increased Hispanic graduates (1% vs. 5%, P=0.045), increased graduates pursuing fellowship training (53% vs 77%, P<0.001), increased maintenance of board certification (78% vs 88%, P=0.043), no differences in FACS certification (P=0.154), and changes in private vs academic vs hybrid/employed practice type (P<0.001).
Conclusion: Trends in surgical graduates of our HBCU program appear to mirror national trends, with an increasing proportion of female graduates and graduates pursuing fellowship training. Our program has seen a decreased proportion of Black surgical trainees, but increased proportion of Hispanic surgical trainees. The decrease in Black surgical trainees may be secondary to the overall decrease in Black Male matriculants into medical schools. Our results support the importance of HBCU surgical training programs in producing a pipeline of underrepresented minorities pursuing surgical careers.