Elsevier

Academic Radiology

Volume 28, Issue 7, July 2021, Pages 930-937
Academic Radiology

Current Topics in Medicine
Addressing the ACGME Mandate for Healthcare Disparities Education in Residency Programs: A Needs Assessment

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acra.2021.05.003Get rights and content

Purpose

To assess current opinions and efforts from radiology residency program leadership regarding healthcare disparities (HCD) education for residents.

Methods

Radiology residency program directors across the United States were sent a 10-item survey and asked a series of qualitative questions regarding their opinions about HCD and current methods of implementation into their residency curriculum, in addition to demographic information such as program location and setting.

Results

73 out of 334 program directors responded. 49.3% were located in the Northeast, 16.4% in the Southeast, 16.4% in the Midwest, 12.3% in the Southwest, and 5.5% in the Pacific. Community programs made up 16.4% of respondents, while academic programs made up 76.7%. 6.8% identified as “other”. 98.6% agreed with the provided definition of HCD. 83.6% agreed or strongly agreed that HCD present an obstacle to providing imaging care. 74.0% agreed or strongly agreed that HCD education is an essential component of residency training. However, 74.0% agreed or strongly agreed that HCD education is difficult to implement due to competing educational requirements. Only 16.4% agreed or strongly agreed that they had sufficient material on HCD to train residents.

Conclusion

Although many radiology residency programs agree that HCD education is essential in residency training, the majority feel that a curriculum is difficult to implement and that they lack sufficient resources. This study confirms the need to address this gap with a standardized curriculum which has been developed and is discussed.

Section snippets

INTRODUCTION

Healthcare disparities (HCD) describe the differences in patient health outcomes experienced by specific populations, including disparities related to ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic location (1). Radiology is no stranger to them. A growing volume of literature has demonstrated the relevance and manifestations of HCD within radiology, and how these directly affect radiologists, residents, medical students, and patients. These effects range from simple access to screening

METHODS

An anonymous 10-item survey (Appendix) created by a medical student, radiology residents, and attending radiologists from multiple institutions was deemed exempt by our Institutional Review Board. No pre-reading or pre-education was required prior to survey completion. The survey was subsequently approved by the Survey Committee of the Association of Program Directors in Radiology (APDR) and distributed by e-mail to all 334 members on December 15, 2020. The APDR is comprised of residency and

RESULTS

Out of 334 program directors, 73 responded to the survey for a response rate of 21.9 %. All survey respondents completed the survey in its entirety without any partial responses. Of the 73 programs that responded, 49.3 % were programs located in the Northeast (n = 36), 16.4 % in the Southeast (n = 12), 16.4 % in the Midwest (n = 12), 12.3 % in the Southwest (n = 9), and 5.5 % in the Pacific (n = 4). There were no responses from Rocky Mountain or noncontiguous United States programs (Fig 1).

DISCUSSION

The results of this survey of APDR members illustrate that the majority of residency program leadership see HCD as an obstacle to imaging care and an essential component of training. However, despite these attitudes toward HCD, 72.6 % of respondents did not feel their program had sufficient material on HCD to train residents to meet ACGME standards. Additionally, 74.0 % agreed or strongly agreed that HCD education is difficult to implement due to competing educational requirements. Lack of a

CONCLUSION

Based on this survey study, despite a recent ACGME mandate and the recognized importance of the topic of HCD in radiology practice, a large number of radiology residency programs in the United States have not yet implemented a formal curriculum in HCD. This study confirms the need to develop a standardized curriculum to address this gap. Fortunately, the APDR has released a HCD toolkit consisting of multiple resources to be integrated into residency training (20). Such a resource will meet this

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