ACS Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The ACS actively promotes full participation in College activities by all surgeons. The ACS upholds the highest standards of leadership in our profession with its strong commitment to multiculturalism and equitable opportunity, respecting and nurturing the diversity of its membership. Fulfilling the ACS promise “To Heal All with Skill and Trust” requires the participation of Fellows from diverse and underrepresented groups. The ACS underscores this commitment to DEI by ensuring that meaningful positions of leadership are held by Fellows from all constituent groups.
Regental Task Force
Surgical societies have started to acknowledge the need to address disparities within their ranks. In 2018, the American Surgical Association’s, (ASA), Task Force on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion published a landmark document titled Ensuring Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Academic Surgery. The Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the Association of Program Directors in Surgery (APDS) published a Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit in 2020 that sought to address disparities in surgical education and the resulting long-term impact.
In November 2020, an ACS Regental Task Force on Racial Issues produced a comprehensive report, including recommendations for advancing DEI and addressing racism to ensure a more equitable College and society. In June 2021, the ACS organized the virtual Promoting DEI and Antiracism Professional Surgical Society Retreat as part of the ongoing effort to address diversity in surgery. Partner surgical organizations were invited to participate and were queried by survey prior to the event. There were several main themes that came out of the retreat, including the importance of data collection, defining metrics of success, improving the pipeline for URiM, and the creation of a comprehensive and practical DEI toolkit.
ACS Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
The ACS Regental Task Force on Racial Issues also recommended the creation of an Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with a full-time Director as well as a Medical Director, which was launched in August 2021.
The ACS Office of DEI’s objectives are to:
- Develop an overall strategic plan for DEI and antiracism efforts in the College and with its partners to maximize the benefits of our collective work
- Build a trauma-informed approach into all DEI efforts without causing unintentional harm in addressing DEI and antiracism
- Align DEI programmatic and curricular content to be consistent with common DEI tenets according to subject matter expertise
- Meaningfully integrate the core values of the College into the work being developed or that which is proximate to the College
The influence of the new DEI office has been substantial. As of October 2022, 90 leaders in DEI from 14 ACS member groups engaged with the ACS DEI Educational and Alignment Collaboratives three-part series. More than 509 persons participated in the all-staff initiative now known as ACS Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI).
The ACS Regental Anti-Racism Committee established an innovative grant program to encourage surgical departments to increase DEI efforts and awarded $325K in grants in 2021, with each department pledging to match the grant amount awarded, meaning that $650,000 went toward DEI-related projects across the House of Surgery.
Eight ACS/REDI work groups were formed to address the following:
- The incorporation of DEI into ACS Values
- Opportunities for career advancement
- Cultural change
- Education, training, and resources
- Health equity
- Staff resource groups
- Safe space
- Supplier diversity
Nine major groups, engaging 158 Fellows and members, focused on DEI and/or antiracism strategies, including the Board of Governors Diversity Pillar; Board of Regents Anti-Racism Committee; Commission on Cancer Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Taskforce; Committee to Advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Healthcare Disparities Committee; Committee on Trauma DEI workgroup; Resident and Associate Society DEI group; Women in Surgery Committee, and Young Fellows Association DEI Workgroup. These efforts led to 19 DEI-related sessions led by 114 presenters at the ACS Clinical Congress 2022. In addition, 19% of the ACS portfolio ($96 million) was placed with diverse investment manager funds.
The ACS DEI Resource and Implementation Toolkit
The Toolkit serves as a collection of authoritative and adaptable resources for surgeons to learn about DEI, identify practical approaches for maximizing the benefits of DEI, and address issues that may arise locally, regionally, and nationally. We focus first on WHY: Why are diversity, equity, and inclusion important to all members of the College? Followed by WHAT: Defining diversity topics, and HOW: What are the tools at our disposal for solving DEI challenges? Each of the chapters includes case studies to serve as examples of DEI challenges in the surgical workplace and in educational forums. References or a bibliography of cited sources is provided for each chapter as well as a section of general resources and a lexicon of common vocabulary and terms.
The Toolkit has been developed to serve as a resource for surgeons and as a repository for information and guide for implementation of equity practices to effectively address specific DEI issues. The Toolkit’s digital, interactive format allows for ease of use, access to internal and external content, and integration of multiple digital modalities by linking to existing literature, lectures, workshops, and seminars to be used by ACS chapters, surgical organizations, community-based and academic institutions, and practicing surgeons. Created as a collaborative effort led by the Diversity Pillar of the ACS Board of Governors and the Office of DEI, the Toolkit in its initial phase will include more than 40 chapters written by more than 90 surgeon authors, reviewed and edited by a core group of DEI experts. Additional chapters were solicited from a large number of surgeon stakeholder groups to ensure a wide and inclusive effort. The ACS Division of Education has ensured that the content will be CME-accredited in early 2024.
The editors are humbled and honored to have the opportunity to lead the work on this Toolkit and hope it will serve as a starting point for a journey of education and growth for surgeons and the surgical workforce everywhere to the benefit of all patients.
Bibliography
American College of Surgeons. ACS Statement on Diversity. January 2018. Available at: https://www.facs.org/about-acs/statements/diversity/. Accessed April 17, 2023.
American Surgical Association. Ensuring Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Academic Surgery. Available at: https://americansurgical.org/equity/. Accessed April 17, 2023.
Association of American Medical Colleges. Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Planning Toolkit. Available at: https://www.aamc.org/services/member-capacity-building/diversity-and-inclusion-strategic-planning-toolkit. Accessed April 17, 2023.
Association of Program Directors in Surgery. APDS Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit. Available at: https://apds.org/program-directors/apds-diversity-and-inclusion-toolkit/. Accessed April 17, 2023.
