ASGE DEI committee exclusive: Strive for ‘inclusion and belonging’ for patients, employees

Disparities and lack of equitable care in gastroenterology and health care as a whole impact job satisfaction, retention and education for providers as well as patient access to care and feeling of acceptance among patients.

Healio has worked with ASGE’s diversity, equity and inclusion subcommittee to bring to the forefront important issues related to DEI in the gastroenterology field and offer solutions to mitigate existing disparities.

“Diversity, equity and inclusion are great, but it’s not enough,” Victoria Gómez, MD, FASGE, associate professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and chair of the ASGE diversity and inclusion committee, previously told Healio. “Inclusion and belonging are what we should be striving for so that not only your patients, but also your employees, are happy with where they go and where they work, day in and day out.”

Gómez continued, “People who have that true sense of belonging tend to stay at their jobs longer and live a more fulfilling life.”

In case you missed it, Healio recaps its latest interviews with ASGE’s DEI subcommittee including how flexible parental leave policies increase inclusivity, the need for racial diversity in clinical trials, care initiatives among LGBTQIA+ patients and the potential for insurance expansion to reduce disparities in colorectal cancer screening.

Flexible parental leave policies increase inclusivity, reduce burnout in GI

In the latest installment of Healio’s diversity, equity and inclusion series with ASGE, Elizabeth Paine, MD, outlines how having clear and thorough parental leave policies promotes inclusivity and job retention in gastroenterology.

“More than 25 years ago, the four main GI societies came together to create a recommendation for 8 weeks of parental leave for gastroenterologists,” Paine, deputy associate chief of staff for specialty care at G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said. “However, despite this recommendation, it has not been implemented widely. It still remains an area with inequities and biases toward those who choose to have children or who wish to become pregnant while continuing their careers in gastroenterology.” Read more.

Equitable access for foreign medical graduates strengthens research, patient care

In this installment of Healio’s diversity, equity and inclusion video series with ASGE, Yakira David, MD, MBBS, explains how barriers not only affect the careers of foreign medical graduates but also the care of underserved communities.

“It is well-established that diversity within the physician workforce, such as it reflects the population that it serves, is one modifiable factor that can contribute to reducing disparities that are race-based,” David, senior associate consultant at Mayo Clinic Health System, said. “A major barrier to diversifying the GI workforce is a suboptimal presence of groups identified as being underrepresented in medicine within our education and training pipeline.” Read more.

Access to care, racial diversity in clinical trials needed to improve IBD outcomes

In the latest installment of our diversity, equity and inclusion video series with ASGE, Anna H. Owings, DO, discusses racial disparities in treatment initiation and response in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

“A commentary systematic review published in Gastroenterology in 2022 indicated that almost 40% of the studies on IBD treatment had no report of race at all, and further, 23% reported only the portion of white participants without mention of the other races,” Owings, a second-year gastroenterology fellow at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said. “This is pertinent because without more representative patient populations in our clinical trials, we will likely see variable responses to medications.” Read more.

Prioritize acceptance, acknowledge sexual health when caring for LGBTQ+ patients

June is Pride Month, and in this installment of our diversity, equity and inclusion video series with ASGE, Matthew B. McNeill, MD, discusses how providers can counter health disparities and help LGBTQ+ patients receive equitable care.

“There is a long history of legal and illegal discrimination against the LGBTQ+ population from families, religious institutions, governments, social programs, school systems ... that have contributed to a particular pattern of health disparities,” McNeill, a gastroenterologist at Summit Health and clinical instructor at NYU Langone Health, said. “Health disparities are preventable differences that affect the burden of disease, the burden of injury, the burden of violence, the burden of opportunities to achieve optimal health in certain populations.” Read more.

Expanding insurance, access to care ‘vital to decreasing’ CRC screening disparities

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month; in the latest installment of our diversity, equity and inclusion video series with ASGE, Pegah Hosseini-Carroll, MD, proposed strategies for mitigating disparities in CRC screening.

“The number of deaths attributable to colorectal cancer has been declining over decades thanks to screening measures,” Hosseini-Carroll, associate professor of medicine and program director for GI fellowship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and member of the ASGE DEI sub-committee, said. “However, only half of the eligible U.S. population has been screened according to guidelines.” Read more.

Curricula is ‘just scratching the surface’ on incorporating DEI into GI training

In a new Healio video series, which focuses on topics in diversity, equity and inclusion with members of ASGE’s DEI subcommittee, Yakira David, MD, MBBS, outlined the importance of emphasizing DEI in gastroenterology training.

At the patient level, knowledge of DEI topics has been shown to mitigate both unconscious and implicit biases which lead to poorer outcomes, decreased treatment satisfaction and higher health care costs, David, an advanced endoscopist at the Mayo Clinic in Mankato, Minn., said. Consequently, patients who feel misunderstood or judged by their providers endure delays in preventive care measures and worsened disease progression. Read more.

Check out more from Healio’s DEI video series with ASGE here.