The Association of Black Cardiologists launched an annual diversity and inclusion scorecard for academic cardiovascular training programs nationwide, according to a Dec. 1 press release.
The ABC Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Scorecard will assess four characteristics:
1. The number of underrepresented people in medicine in general cardiology fellowships
2. The change in number of fellows over the life cycle of the training program
3. The trainees' assessment of their sense of belonging
4. The number of underrepresented faculty and those in leadership
Results will be published annually, the release said.
"The problem with academic medicine in many ways is that if I time traveled back a hundred years, it looks pretty much how it looks now," Karol Watson, MD, PhD, co-chair of ABC's Preventive Cardiology Committee, said in the release. "People tend to hire themselves over and over, so we need to get people to understand how important diversity is and get buy-in from the community. It has to be everyone's responsibility, not just African Americans, to bring all of us along."
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