The Diversity of Surgical Trainees Index identifies racial and ethnic disparities among surgical specialties.

OBJECTIVE: Racial and ethnic disparities have been well-described among surgical specialties; however, variations in underrepresented in medicine (URiM) representation between these specialties have not previously been quantified. METHODS: Data collected from Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) annual reports were used to derive the Diversity of Surgical Trainee Index (DoSTI) metric, which was calculated as the proportion of URiM residents and fellow physicians within a given surgical specialty, relative to the overall proportion of URiM trainees within all surgical and non-surgical ACGME-accredited programs in the same academic year. RESULTS: From 2013 to 2022, a total of 108,193 ACGME-accredited residency programs trained 1,296,204 residents and fellows in the United States. Of these, 14.1% (n = 182,680) of trainees self-identified as URiM over the study period. The mean DoSTI among all surgical specialties was 0.80 (standard error, 0.01) compared with all ACGME-accredited programs. High DoSTI specialties incorporated significantly higher proportions of Hispanic (8.7% vs 6.3%) and Black (5.2% vs 2.5%) trainees compared with low DoSTI specialties (P < .0001 each). General surgery (1.06 ± 0.01), plastic surgery (traditional) (1.12 ± 0.06), vascular surgery (integrated) (0.96 ± 0.03), and vascular surgery (traditional) (0.94 ± 0.06) had the highest DoSTI indices (P < .05 each vs composite). On linear regression analysis, only ophthalmology (+0.01/year; R2 = 0.41; P = .019), orthopedic surgery (+0.01/year; R2 = 0.33; P = .047), otolaryngology (+0.02/year; R2 = 0.86; P < .001), and pediatric surgery (+0.06/year; R2 = 0.33; P = .048) demonstrated an annual increase in DoSTI. CONCLUSIONS: The DoSTI is a novel metric used to quantify the degree of URiM representation among surgical specialties. DoSTI has revealed specialty-specific variations in racial/ethnic minority representation among surgical training programs. This metric may be used to improve provider awareness, identify high performing DoSTI specialties to highlight their best practices, and ultimately, recruit a more diverse surgical workforce.

Use and 1-year outcomes with conventional and drug-coated balloon angioplasty in patients with lower extremity peripheral artery disease.

BACKGROUND: With the growing use of drug-coated balloons for the treatment of peripheral artery disease, information regarding the safety and effectiveness of drug-coated balloons in current practice is needed. We examined patient, physician, and procedural characteristics as well as cardiovascular and limb events in patients who underwent peripheral vascular intervention with drug-coated balloons. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort analysis utilizing Medicare data for 100% of fee-for-service beneficiaries from 2015 to 2016 who had a claim for femoropopliteal intervention. The use of drug-coated balloons was identified via specific transitional pass-through codes. All-cause mortality, all-cause hospitalization, repeat femoropopliteal intervention, and major lower extremity amputation at 1 year were the clinical outcomes of interest. RESULTS: In total, 83,225 patients underwent femoropopliteal intervention, and drug-coated balloons were utilized in 29% of all procedures. Patients treated with drug-coated balloons had a lower cumulative incidence of all-cause hospitalization, all-cause mortality, and major lower extremity amputation, but were more likely to undergo repeat femoropopliteal intervention when compared with patients treated with conventional balloon angioplasty. After adjustment for measured confounders, patients treated with drug-coated balloons had lower rates of hospitalization (HR 0.91 (0.88, 0.93), P < .001), all-cause mortality (HR 0.89 [0.84, 0.94], P < .001), and major amputation (HR 0.93 [0.88, 0.99], P = .017). CONCLUSIONS: Patients who underwent femoropopliteal intervention with drug-coated balloons had lower observed rates of all-cause mortality, all-cause hospitalization, and major amputation at 1 year. Interestingly, there was not a reduction in rates of repeat revascularization, and further work is required to understand this finding. Nevertheless, the use of drug-coated balloons appears to be safe in this large study of contemporary patients in the United States.

Women undergoing aortic surgery are at higher risk for unplanned readmissions compared with men especially when discharged home.

OBJECTIVE: Women undergoing vascular surgery have higher morbidity and mortality. Our study explores gender-based differences in patient-centered outcomes such as readmission, length of stay (LOS), and discharge destination (home vs nonhome facility) in aortic aneurysm surgery. METHODS: Patients were identified from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Project database (2011-2013) undergoing abdominal, thoracic, and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (N = 17,763), who were discharged and survived their index hospitalization. The primary outcome was unplanned readmission, and secondary outcomes were discharge to a nonhome facility, LOS, and reasons for unplanned readmission. Univariate, multivariate, and stratified analyses based on gender and discharge destination were used. RESULTS: Overall, 1541 patients (8.7%) experienced an unplanned readmission, with a significantly higher risk in women vs men (10.8% vs 8%; P < .001) overall (Procedure subtypes: abdominal aortic aneurysm [10.1% vs 7.7%; P < .001], thoracic aortic aneurysm [14.1% vs 13.5%; P = .8], and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm [14.8% vs 10%; P = .051]). The higher odds of readmission in women compared with men persisted in multivariate analysis after controlling for covariates (odds ratio [OR], 1.21; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.05-1.4). Similarly, the rate of discharge to a nonhome facility was nearly double in women compared with men (20.6% vs 10.7%; P < .001), but discharge to a nonhome facility was not a significant predictor of unplanned readmission. Upon stratification by discharge destination, the higher odds of readmissions in women compared with men occurred in patients who were discharged home (OR, 1.2; 95% CI, 1.02-1.4) but not in those who were discharged to a nonhome facility (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.8-1.4). Significant differences in LOS were seen in patients who were discharged home. No gender differences were found in reasons for readmission with the three most common reasons being thromboembolic events, wound infections, and pneumonia. CONCLUSIONS: Gender disparity exists in the risk of unplanned readmission among aortic aneurysm surgery patients. Women who were discharged home have a higher likelihood of unplanned readmission despite longer LOS than men. These data suggest that further study into the discharge planning processes, social factors, and use of rehabilitation services is needed for women undergoing aortic procedures to decrease readmissions.