By DeAsia Jacob, MD

It has become so popular to say diversity, equity, and inclusion, but what do those terms really mean and the even more important question is how do we apply them to our everyday lives as hand surgeons? The population of patients we serve is diverse in race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, gender identity, socioeconomic status, education, and health literacy. We owe it to our patients to be an equally diverse workforce in order to better serve them. The literature has shown time and time again the impact of race concordance among patients and their practitioners and how these patients have not only better encounters with their providers but also better outcomes in some circumstances. While this is not to say that discordance is detrimental to the patient-provider relationship, but if we have the opportunity to give patients better outcomes, shouldn’t we? Equity can be tricky in hand surgery because what is the right treatment for one patient is not necessarily right for another, even with the same pathology. Even still, we must be equitable in our decision-making, taking into account a patient’s resources, health literacy, as well as our professional judgement. Equity must extend to providers as well. When educating hand surgeons, we must give opportunities for those from underrepresented racial, ethnic, and gender backgrounds the chance to explore the field. Inclusion is probably the easiest of these terms. Simply put, we have to include those who are not like us – which can be defined in many ways. We cannot continue to have a monolithic specialty – we must be as diverse as the patients that we serve. Lastly, it is important for those not in underrepresented groups to not leave this task only to those who are affected. Allyship is crucial in order to diversify the field. Those who are not in underrepresented groups are those who can have a huge impact by not only recognizing the need for change but providing opportunities to achieve the ultimate goal.