Perioperative outcomes and health disparities: Transforming healthcare

Health disparities persist across race and ethnicity within our health care system. The environments in which we live and work, and the opportunities and resources available to us contribute to social determinants often inextricable from race and ethnicity that influence and affect our health. While racial and ethnic disparities in perioperative health outcomes have traditionally been attributed to underlying comorbidities, the scope and lens with which social determinants of health play a role are often underestimated. Furthermore, there is limited research on unconscious bias within medicine despite multiple studies that demonstrate minoritized populations inequitably receive lower quality of care. This review article evaluates differences in health outcomes across race and ethnicity as experienced in the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative contexts.