From understanding to action: Interventions for surgical disparities

Document Type

Article

Department

General Surgery

Abstract

Background: Health care disparities are a well-documented phenomenon. Despite the development and implementation of multiple interventions, disparities in surgery have proven persistent. Thought to arise from a combination of patient, provider, and system-level factors, the objective of this study was to identify what is currently known about factors that influence surgical disparities and elucidate possible interventions to address them across four intervention-based themes: (1) condition-specific targeted interventions; (2) increased reliance on quantitative factors; (3) doctor-patient communication; and (4) cultural humility.
Data sources: Articles were abstracted from PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library using controlled keyword vocabulary.
Conclusions: There are various forms of interventions to address surgical disparities, spanning knowledge from disparate fields. Promising efforts have emerged towards the successful alleviation of disparities. In order to move the field of surgery from understanding of disparities towards actions to mitigate them, continued development of meaningful quality improvement initiatives are needed

Comments

This work was published before the author joined Aga Khan University

Publication (Name of Journal)

Journal of Surgical Research

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