Racial and Ethnic Diversity Within U.S. Residencies: Trends from 2011 to 2019

OBJECTIVE: Examine trends in the proportion of underrepresented minority (URM) residents from 2011 to 2019 across all specialties and investigate differences between surgical and non-surgical specialties. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: N/A. PARTICIPANTS: The authors extracted data on the proportion of URM residents in all specialties from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education yearly reports. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant decline in the proportion of URM residents in surgical specialties (p < 0.01) from 2011 (9.9%) to 2019 (9.1%) and a significant increase in the proportion of URM residents in non-surgical specialties (p < 0.01) from 2011 (9.6%) to 2019 (10.2%). CONCLUSIONS: This study emphasizes the need to increase recruitment of URMs in medicine, especially in surgical specialties. Findings from this study can inform much-needed initiatives to address barriers to entry for diverse applicants within specialties that lack diversity and have shown minimal improvement over time.