Evolution of Workforce Diversity in Surgery^✰.

Area of Science:

• Medical Workforce Analysis
• Surgical Specialties
• Diversity and Inclusion Metrics

Background:

• Assessing workforce diversity is crucial for understanding evolution and future trends in medicine.
• Surgical specialties require continuous monitoring to adapt to societal changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate gender, racial/ethnic, and duty trends in general surgery and surgical subspecialties over a decade.
• To analyze changes in the composition of the surgical workforce.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study analyzing data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) from 2000 to 2013.
• Calculated ratios and relative changes to assess physician characteristics over time and across specialties.
• Extracted data on surgeon numbers, race/ethnicity, gender, and professional activity.

Main Results:

• The total number of surgeons increased by 11.5% between 2000 and 2013.
• The majority of surgeons remained White (64%) and male (75%), but improvements in minority and female representation were observed across most specialties.
• While most surgeons focus on patient care (98%), there was an increase in those in other activities like research and teaching (2%).

Conclusions:

• The demographic profile of the surgical workforce is evolving.
• Ongoing surveillance of the surgical workforce is essential for anticipating future demands.
• Adapting to workforce changes will help in serving an increasingly diverse patient population.