Diversity in the Adult and Pediatric Heart Transplant Surgeon Workforce between 2000 and 2020

Abstract

There is a paucity of literature evaluating trends in the demographic composition of the cardiothoracic surgery workforce. Using the United Network for Organ Sharing database, we retrospectively analyzed the changes in sex, race, and ethnicity of surgeons performing heart transplantations between 2000−2020. Surgeons performing heart transplantations for adult (≥18 years) and pediatric (<18 years) patients between 2000−2020 were identified and stratified by sex (male, female) and by race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic Asian, Hispanic of any race). Between 2000−2020, the proportion of non-White and female cardiothoracic surgeons performing adult and pediatric heart transplantations increased. Nevertheless, there remains a lack of diversity in the workforce, particularly when compared to the general United States population.

Keywords: diversity; heart transplant; transplant surgery; workforce.

Figure 1

Percentage of workforce by year of surgeons performing at least one HTx. Solid lines represent the HTx surgeon workforce percentage, and dashed lines represent the US population percentages as reported by the US Census [11,12].

Figure 2

Common logarithm of the representation index by year of surgeons performing at least one HTx. Values greater than zero indicate overrepresentation, and values less than zero indicate underrepresentation. The representation index was calculated with respect to US Census data [11,12].