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