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. 2022 Aug 16:35:10506.
doi: 10.3389/ti.2022.10506. eCollection 2022.

Gender and Racial Disparity Among Liver Transplantation Professionals: Report of a Global Survey

Victoria Aguilera  1   2 , Oya Andacoglu  3   4 , Claire Francoz  5 , Gabriela Berlakovich  6 , Sher-Lu Pai  7 , Dieter Adelmann  8 , Simantika Ghosh  9 , Keri E Lunsford  10 , Martin Montenovo  11 , Anna Mrzljak  12 , Irene Scalera  13 , Qinfen Xie  14 , Chiara Becchetti  15 , Marina Berenguer  1   2 , Nazia Selzner  16
Affiliations

Gender and Racial Disparity Among Liver Transplantation Professionals: Report of a Global Survey

Victoria Aguilera et al. Transpl Int. .

Abstract

Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are fundamental principles. Little is known about the pattern of practice and perceptions of EDI among liver transplant (LT) providers. International Liver Transplant Society (ILTS) EDI Committee survey around topics related to discrimination, mentorship, and gender. Answers were collected and analyzed anonymously. Worldwide female leadership was also queried via publicly available data. The survey was e-mailed to 1312 ILTS members, 199 responses (40.7% female) were collected from 38 countries (15.2% response rate). Almost half were surgeons (45.7%), 27.6% hepatologists and 26.6% anesthetists. Among 856 LT programs worldwide, 8.2% of leadership positions were held by females, and 22% of division chiefs were female across all specialties. Sixty-eight of respondents (34.7%) reported some form of discrimination during training or at their current position, presumably related to gender/sexual orientation (20.6%), race/country of origin (25.2%) and others (7.1%). Less than half (43.7%) received mentorship when discrimination occurred. An association between female responses and discrimination, differences in compensation, and job promotion was observed. This survey reveals alarmingly high rate of experience with racial and gender disparity, lack of mentorship, and very low rates of female leadership in the LT field and calls to action to equity and inclusion.

Keywords: gender equality; leadership; liver transplantation; racial disparity; women physicians.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Leadership gender among specialties; there is a significant difference between men and women leadership position between different specialties (p = 0.046, Chi 2).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Global map of leadership composition in liver transplant. Data source: GODT website (www.transplant-observatory.org).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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