The commitment By Ria Singh, BS; Eric Cyphers, DO; Vishal Kumar, MD The IR awareness problem
How present is IR exposure at historically Black colleges and universities?
I
nterventional radiology is a patient- facing specialty, and the increasing demand of minimally invasive procedures places it at the forefront of medicine. With growing minority and non-English speaking populations in the United States, there is an inherent need to diversify the IR workforce.
However, a recent review of IR exposure at medical schools with a high proportion of underrepresented minorities (URMs)—particularly focusing on historically Black colleges or universities (HBCUs)—found that no active HBCUs or osteopathic (DO) schools provide students with high IR exposure.
The need for IR exposure Diversifying the IR workforce has two-fold benefits. Firstly, racial/ethnic minority providers are more likely to practice in underserved areas, serving about 54% of minority patients and 70% of non-English speaking patients.1 The patient population is also found to report increased contentment with their treatment when the provider is from the same cultural or ethnic background.2 Secondly, the innovative nature of IR benefits from the intellectual diversity and productivity that comes with a varied workforce. With a large working pool of talent, cooperation between physicians with different lived experiences, perspectives and skillsets leads to well-informed patient care.3
Consistent efforts are being made by the field to diversify its workforce; however, the subjective and unstructured interview format of radiology residency programs disproportionately affects certain populations by introducing implicit bias. The conversational “ice- breaker questions” can be intertwined
16 IRQ | FALL 2024
Data from the 2022 AAMC Physician
Specialty Report revealed that of the 4,011 active IR physicians,
3%
identified themselves as African American and 3.8% are DO graduates.
with unintentional microaggressions targeting certain ethnic or racial minority groups.4
In addition, osteopathic medical students have been historically underrepresented in IR. With no structured exposure to the field, students are at a disadvantage in terms of gaining clinical experiences, which precludes them from opportunities necessary for a successful match into integrated IR positions.5
As a result,
African Americans among URM and DO graduates are referred together as having faced persistent challenges and underrepresentation in healthcare. These groups, with their nontraditional path to medicine, have the potential to enhance creativity and patient communication to ensure better clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction.6
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