DIVERSITY Endourological Society’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts Update

By: Michelle Jo Semins, MD, Chair, Diversity and Inclusion Committee Endourological Society West Virginia University School of Medicine, Wheeling | Posted on: 19 Apr 2024

The Endourological Society Diversity and Inclusion Committee, formed in October 2021 following the initial taskforce work in 2020, continues to be very active, meeting quarterly. We are pleased to share the Society’s efforts with the urologic community. We hope that sharing our initiatives help inspire other organizations with similar goals, and we thank the organizations that have shared their efforts to inspire us.

Transparency

To further promote diversity, equity, and inclusivity, the Society initiated a new selection process in 2023 for committee members that entails an application. There was an open call on social media and via email for open positions. Previously, the process was informal. Formalizing the process aims to provide opportunity for all interested to be involved and active within the Society. This new process proved to be hugely successful with applications from Europe, Africa, North America, South America, and New Zealand. With limited open committee positions, we also hope to engage with applicants offering other opportunities for participation in the Society.

Tracking Representation

In addition to the annual membership census, this year the Society launched a postfellowship survey that includes optional demographic information. This will help to track diversity of graduating fellows within our specialty. The committee also aims to track speaker and faculty diversity at the annual meeting. To date this has been done manually but, moving forward, we hope to be able to track this electronically and compare data annually to adapt change. Recent and current data will be submitted for publication by end of quarter one 2024, so be on the alert for the manuscript later this year. The Society continues to grow its speaker database, with members signing up through the Society webpage, and the database is accessible for scientific program planning.

Educational Efforts

The Society continues diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) educational efforts. A quarterly webinar series dedicated to diversity and inclusivity was established in 2022, and to date there have been 7 events (Table). We have been able to continue this educational webinar with industry funding by Cook Medical Inc. All DEI webinars are live and available to all (members and nonmembers). Similarly, recordings are available to all on the Society webpage.

Table. Quarterly Diversity and Inclusion Webinar Series

February 2022, Gender Equity in Endourology

June 2022, Mentorship and Allyship

November 2022, My Own Pathway and How I Work to Expand the Pipeline: Attracting Diverse Youth on an International Level

February 2023, Difficult Conversations: How to Approach DEI Case Scenarios in Medicine

June 2023, How to Nurture Global Partnerships

December 2023, Difficult Conversations II: How to Approach DEI Case Scenarios in Medicine

February 2024, A Day in the Life…Being LGBTQ+ in Urology

Abbreviations: DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

DEI programming at the annual meetings started in 2022, and for 2023 was on the planned agenda in the plenary, as well as the Young Endourology and Team of Worldwide Endourology Researchers (TOWER) sessions. Additionally, there is now a DEI abstract category. This movement will continue at future meetings.

Educational Support

The Endourological Society has been fortunate enough to obtain multiple fellowship scholarship grants to support underrepresented minorities and/or women recruited as fellows at North and South American programs with a commitment to enhancing DEI. Dedicated funding like this focused on increasing the pipeline will help to increase diversity, equity, and inclusivity within our field. The Society is currently working on securing funding to support an international grant with similar goals.

Research Efforts

TOWER, the international research arm of the Endourological Society, continues to engage with the committee for ideas to promote DEI. They are interested in encouraging health disparities research among their collaborators. We are also analyzing worldwide representation involved with TOWER and plan to recruit from regions that are underrepresented. For those reading this article interested in endourology health disparities research and/or DEI who would like to connect with TOWER, there are links on the Society website to join the research team along with information on ongoing trials and opportunities for participation.

Future

Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusivity remains a priority for the Society. The Young Endourology subgroup is launching a mentorship program this year. We will continue to work on increasing the pipeline to promote diversity and will seek out and embrace projects that foster inclusion and equity in our community.