CHICAGO-Within the ongoing discussion on the need to reform the delivery of health care in the United States to better balance issues of cost, quality, and accessibility is an underlying issue that, if not sufficiently recognized, will undermine all efforts at reform.
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December 2008This issue is the need to recognize the heterogeneity of the patients that the health care system serves, and the importance of addressing specific needs related to ethnicity, gender, age, and socioeconomic conditions that directly affect whether or not a person receives adequate care.
In recognition of the importance of issues pertaining to diversity, a miniseminar focusing on the main issues related to diversity was offered for the first time at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS). The AAO-HNS Diversity Committee also convened for the first time during the annual meeting. In addition, within the past year, the AAO-HNS leadership approved its first policy statement on diversity (www.entnet.org/Practice/Diversity.cfm ).