September 19, 2023 — Reflecting the need in anesthesiology to address diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), Anesthesia & Analgesia has devoted its entire October 2023 issue to these topics. This official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
"The mission of Anesthesia & Analgesia states that the Journal exists for the benefit of current and future patients under the care of health care professionals engaged in the disciplines broadly related to anesthesiology," Paloma Toledo, MD, MPH, professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Medicine and Pain Management at the University of Miami, Florida, and colleagues note in an introductory editorial. "We as a specialty cannot escape the reality that to fulfill this mission, we must also address DEI."
Furthering DEI work is part of the effort to eliminate healthcare disparities
The manuscripts selected for the special issue span a gamut. Some are descriptive, some identify potential solutions, and others describe what the authors are doing at their institutions or within a medical society to achieve meaningful change and progress in DEI. A sampling of topics:
Marching towards Utopia: Mentor–mentee relationship devoid of race or gender considerations
The Women in Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology (WICTA) special interest group: What can the lessons of one anesthesiology affinity group tell us about how to build impactful professional communities?
Leading change and managing resistance for equity, diversity, and inclusivity in anesthesiology departments
Assuring the groundwork for success: mentorship, sponsorship, and allyship for practicing anesthesiologists
Perspectives on ethnic and language diversity and perioperative neurocognitive disorders
Championing the mom: the role of a mothers' support group in academic anesthesia practice
The anesthesiology physician–scientist pipeline: current status and recommendations for future growth—an initiative of the Anesthesia Research Council
So, you want to DEI? Ten practical tips for establishing sustainable change
Pro–con debate: Consideration of race, ethnicity, and gender is detrimental to successful mentorship
Systematic efforts to recruit diversity in a residency program and the impact on representation over 3 years
The themed edition is just one of several Anesthesia & Analgesia initiatives related to DEI
In a related effort, the staff and editorial board of Anesthesia & Analgesia recently evaluated the composition of the journal's editorial board. Befitting an international journal, nearly half the editors were born outside the United States. Editors' ages are equally distributed across early-, mid-, and late-career, and 28% are women, comparable to the percentage of women in anesthesiology.
Anesthesia & Analgesia intends to keep striving to ensure a diversity of perspectives and fair editorial and manuscript review processes, regardless of an author's gender, race, ethnicity, or country of origin. In keeping with that goal, at the 2023 annual meeting of the International Anesthesia Research Society the journal hosted its first peer review workshop, to train a greater range of anesthesiologists in the fundamentals of manuscript review. That effort is also expected to improve the diversity of the editorial board, because excellent peer reviewers are often invited to join the board.
The editorialists add, "Anesthesia & Analgesia will continue to publish articles related to DEI and conduct journal-sponsored programming to further our understanding of how DEI impacts the care we give, and the outcomes our patients experience."
Link to Article [ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: More Than Words ]
