Surgery's Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Our mission is to foster and maintain a safe environment of respect and inclusion for faculty, staff, trainees, and patients.

The mission of the BIDMC Department of Surgery Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is to foster a culture where surgical clinicians, educators, and scientists can excel, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, religion, country of origin, immigration status, or disability. We believe that differences in experiences and perspective are required if we aim to achieve health equity and eliminate disparities.

Surgery departments across the country do not reflect the rapidly evolving demographics of the United States, and critical changes must be implemented if we are to have access to the ideas and innovative solutions required to effectively tackle this significant public health concern. The BIDMC Department of Surgery Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is firmly committed to consequential change through meaningful mentorship and promotion of academic surgeons from underrepresented backgrounds.1

For the BIDMC Department of Surgery, a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion means:

  • We will make organizational decisions that are informed by, and responsive to, the priorities of the diverse communities that make up our faculty as well as the patient populations we serve.
  • We will hold dedicated education programs for faculty, staff and trainees to address bias, discrimination and issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.
  • We will foster and maintain a safe environment of respect and inclusion for faculty, staff, trainees, and students that encourages all to speak up when we see or hear injustice.
  • We will develop safe and effective ways for concerns related to diversity, equity and inclusion to be reported and addressed.
  • We will integrate the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion in all programs, courses and scientific conferences supported by the department.
  • We will develop, implement, and evaluate action plans to decrease intergroup disparities in areas such as leadership, promotion, committee representation and faculty/trainee retention.
  • We will make an effort to ensure underrepresented faculty and trainees are adequately mentored.
  • We will advocate for and enact changes that ensure fair and just treatment of all our patients regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, religion, country of origin, immigration status, or disability.
  • We will maintain a diversity action plan that is assessed, reported and revamped as needed to meet the growing needs of our organization and the communities we serve.
  • We will continue to support (logistically and financially) research aimed to address inequities in health care.
  • We acknowledge that implicit bias training is not enough to reduce biased outcomes and we will actively seek out ways to practice discretion elimination in faculty hiring, promotion and trainee selection and evaluation.
  • We will regularly monitor our progress via evaluation of completed action items as well as through objective data on the representation of diverse backgrounds within our department to ensure BIDMC moves closer to reflecting the diversity found in our patients, community and nation.

1 This statement was derived from a statement by the Association of Academic Surgery Commitment to Diversity in Academic Surgery and modified with their written permission.