Rekha Swamy - Department of Neurosurgery
It has often been discussed that racial disparities are highly prevalent in all realms of medicine and neurosurgery is no exception. Despite being a predominantly surgical field it is important to see patient care in this specialty through the social lens of racial disparities. With that being said, a paper written by a group of medical professionals at Duke University School of Medicine conducted a meta-analysis study of neurosurgical publications to see to what degree they discussed the issue of racial disparities. To accurately quantify this the authors categorized any mention of racial disparities in the reviewed papers as “identifying, understanding, or reducing disparities” [1]. Only 371 studies that directly discussed the topic of racial disparities were used for the review. With that, the results highlight that 83.6% of the reviewed studies were in the identification phase of racial disparities whereas 15.1% were in the understanding phase, and only 1.3% were within the reducing racial disparities phase. Thus, there is a call to action from the authors of this article asking for not only an increase in the identification of these racial disparities but also a change to ensure equity in patient care for neurosurgical procedures.
The beauty and glamour of neurosurgery often come from the surgeries themselves and the latest technological innovations to advance the specialty; however, it is important to realize that just like every other field of healthcare there is a component of inequality that needs to be addressed to ensure equitable care to all patients. As this article mentions, it is imperative to prevent racial biases and establish how the concept of improved communication can be the first step neurosurgeons can take to help patients of minority groups get the care that they need. Surgeons need to take into account the complex and extensive social needs of their patients so that pre-operative, surgical, and post-operative medical services and care can be of the highest quality that all patient deserves.
References:
Owolo, E., Seas, A., Bishop, B., Sperber, J., Petitt, Z., Arango, A., Yoo, S., Shah, S., Duvall, J. B., Johnson, E., Abu-Bonsrah, N., Kaplan, S., Eden, S., Ashley, W. W., Williamson, T., & Goodwin, C. R. (2023). Scoping review on the state of racial disparities literature in the treatment of neurosurgical disease: A call for action. Neurosurgical Focus, 55(5), E3.
Edited By: Firas Batrash, Editor-in-Chief
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