Experts discuss lack of DEI content on urology residency program websites

In this video, Olubusola Osunsanya, MS, and Keiko Cooley, MD, highlights findings from the publication, “Assessment of the Presence of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Content on Urology Residency Programs Websites.” Osunsanya is a medical student at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and Cooley is a urologic surgery resident at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon.

Video Transcript:

Osunsanya: One notable finding that was interesting was to see that diversity and DEI content wasn’t as prevalent on a lot of websites as we thought. So, how we looked at is that we looked at primary criteria and secondary criteria. Primary criteria would be that on the residency page, or even the urology department page, we were able to see some sort of DEI initiatives. That being that they had under-representative programming, if they had something for the residents, even if they had a statement. Secondary criteria would be if it was on the urology department website or the residency department for urology page site, and then it was just on the institutional site. What was notable is that we saw that 44 programs met primary criteria, which isn't a lot. There's 143 urology residency programs, and 44 is 1/4, maybe 1/3 of those programs, having some type of DEI context. That was surprising, because the AUA has been making such a big push about these initiatives and you see people having conversations on Twitter, but unfortunately, it's not being reflected on the site.

Cooley: I think that there could have been some expectation to see this lack of advertisement or engagement with DEI, particularly in urology given its current demographics. However, to Olubusola's point, the AUA did create that Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, and despite that and despite those efforts, it doesn't seem like residency programs have put forth an effort to match what the American Urological Association is doing or attempting to achieve as a whole. This is a trend that's actually seen in other surgical subspecialties as well. When we were doing our literature review, we found similar findings in plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery, as well as general surgery, with general surgery, I believe having the most DEI content available across their residency pages.

This transcription has been edited for clarity.