• Zerubabbel K Asfaw, Elizabeth Soto, Kurt Yaeger, Rui Feng, Alejandro Carrasquilla, Ernest J Barthélemy, Halima Tabani, Asem Berkalieva, Madhu Mazumdar, Ian T McNeill, and Isabelle M Germano.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
• Neurosurgery. 2022 Jul 1; 91 (1): 727972-79.

BackgroundPromoting workplace diversity leads to a variety of benefits related to a broader range of perspectives and insights. Underrepresented in medicine (URiM), including African Americans, Latinx, and Natives (Americans/Alaskan/Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders), are currently accounting for approximately 40% of the US population.ObjectiveTo establish a snapshot of current URiM representation within academic neurosurgery (NS) programs and trends within NS residency.MethodsAll 115 NS residencies and academic programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in 2020 were included in this study. The National Residency Matching Program database was reviewed from 2011 to 2020 to analyze URiM representation trends over time within the NS resident workforce. The academic rank, academic and clinical title(s), subspecialty, sex, and race of URiM NS faculty (NSF) were obtained from publicly available data.ResultsThe Black and Latinx NS resident workforce currently accounts for 4.8% and 5.8% of the total workforce, respectively. URiM NSF are present in 71% of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited NS programs and account for 8% (148 of 1776) of the workforce. Black and Latinx women comprise 10% of URiM NSF. Latinx NSFs are the majority within the URiM cohort for both men and women. URiM comprise 5% of all department chairs. All are men. Spine (26%), tumor (26%), and trauma (17%) were the top 3 subspecialties among URiM NSF.ConclusionNS has evolved, expanded, and diversified in numerous directions, including race and gender representation. Our data show that ample opportunities remain to improve URiM representation within NS.Copyright © Congress of Neurological Surgeons 2022. All rights reserved.

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