Multi-Center Evaluation of Education Outcomes of Graduates from Accredited HBCU Surgery Programs

We aim to examine the educational outcomes and attrition of surgical residents from actively accredited Historically Black College and University (HBCU) surgical residency programs.

The records of all graduates from currently accredited HBCU general surgery residency programs were queried from each program's inception. Demographic data such as sex, race/ethnicity, and medical school graduation were collected. Educational outcomes such as, board certification, fellowship pursuance, designation within the American College of Surgeons (ACS), and practice type were collected. Educational outcomes and overall trends were analyzed.

Multi-Institutional study conducted at Howard University College of Medicine (HUCM) in Washington, DC, and Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) in Atlanta, GA.

There were 435 total graduates from both HBCU programs, for which 86% of graduates identified as Black and 47% of which pursued careers in academic surgery. Graduates also achieved 91.5% certification by ABMS. HBCU medical school graduates comprise 45% of all graduates from HBCU surgery residency programs. Temporal trends for all HBCU surgery programs demonstrate significant decreases in Black graduates (p = 0.048), possibly due to decreased Black Male surgical trainees (p = 0.021) and increased inclusion of Black surgical trainees into majority surgical residency training programs.

HBCU surgery residency programs train a large proportion of minority surgical residents with excellent surgical outcomes and board certification rates that exceed the national average. Almost half of all graduates of HBCU surgical residency programs are also HBCU medical school graduates, underscoring their importance in the graduate medical education continuum.