IBD Care Across Diverse Patient Populations: Changing the Narrative

Black and Hispanic communities have been historically marginalized in medicine including gastroenterology. It is widely appreciated that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) impacts people of all races and ethnicities. Despite this recognition, there is a paucity of high-quality research investigating these disparities. The reasons for this paucity are multifactorial, and they require innovative solutions. An added dimension which may have an unanticipated compounding effect is a disproportionately low number of Black and Hispanic learners progressing through medical and healthcare education pathways. Continued and concerted engagement of all stakeholders including patients, learners, and practitioners is a key step toward addressing the steep knowledge gap in our understanding of IBD in Hispanic or Black individuals compared with White individuals. In this commentary, we highlight advances in the understanding of genetics in diverse populations and the impact on healthcare, discuss strategies to augment research participation among Black and Hispanic individuals, emphasize the importance of equity in IBD clinical practice and highlight exceptional organizations championing diversity in gastroenterology and IBD, focus on barriers to identifying and addressing disparities in IBD treatment across diverse populations, and finally, we briefly discuss the very limited existing literature on IBD in Indigenous populations in whom much less is known or understood.