Diversity in vascular surgery.

A growing body of literature in vascular surgery demonstrates disparities in the type of health care that racial/ethnic minorities receive in the United States. Numerous recommendations, including those of the Institute of Medicine, have been set forth, which identify increasing the number of minority health professionals as a key strategy to eliminating health disparities. The purpose of this study is to compare the racial/ethnic distribution of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) membership, the SVS leadership, vascular surgery trainees, and medical students. The results demonstrate that the racial/ethnic distribution of the SVS membership reflects a considerable lack of diversity with a paucity of diversity among the SVS leadership. An increasing rate of racial/ethnic diversity among vascular surgery trainees may indicate that the SVS will see an improvement in diversity in the future.