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Simon Fleming is a Londonbased T&O registrar. He is a founding member and the trainee representative for the International Orthopaedic Diversity Alliance (IODA), on the Executive board for the NIHR Clinical Education Incubator and Associate Editor for Medical Education and The Clinical Teacher. He was previously Vice Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges Trainee Doctors’ Group (ATDG) and President of the British Orthopaedic Trainees’ Association (BOTA).
Diversity in trauma and orthopaedics: Rationale for an inclusive culture Simon Fleming, Jennifer Green, Laurie Hiemstra, Samantha Tross and Kristy Weber on behalf of International Orthopaedic Diversity Alliance (IODA)
The International Orthopaedic Diversity Alliance (IODA) is an orthopaedic surgeon-led, not-for-profit collaboration with a vision to unite leaders and industry to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in orthopaedic surgery around the globe.
Jennifer Green is an Orthopaedic Hand & Wrist Surgeon. She is a Founding Member of IODA and a member of the Australian Orthopaedic Association (AOA) Champions of Change. She is a Past Chair of AOA Orthopaedic Women’s Link (OWL) and assisted in establishing the AOA Cultural Inclusion Working Group. Jennifer is an active member of the Australian Hand Surgery Society (AHSS) and the Asia Pacific Orthopaedic Association (APOA) Hand & Upper Limb Section. She is also the Australian Representative on the Asia Pacific Federation of Hand Surgery Societies (APFSSH).
26 | JTO | Volume 10 | Issue 01 | March 2022 | boa.ac.uk
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ODA is supported by more than 30 past, present and future national orthopaedic association presidents. IODA members are actively driving discussions around EDI by organising symposia, creating educational webinars, collecting data and collaboratively publishing in the orthopaedic literature. IODA is focused on diversity in orthopaedics writ large, not just gender, envisioning a global culture of inclusivity, where everyone can thrive. Orthopaedic surgery is one of the least gender and ethnically diverse medical specialties1,2. This lack of diversity has been recognised as a ‘critical issue’ by many national and international orthopaedic associations. Multifocused diversity strategies are being or have been established by International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine (ISAKOS), the New Zealand, American, Australian, New Zealand, British, Canadian Orthopaedic Associations, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). Women in orthopaedics initiatives have been established in the Societe Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopedique et de
Traumatologie (SICOT), European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT), European Society for Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy (ESSKA), and the Asia Pacific Orthopaedic Association (APOA). These, along with over 40 national ‘Women in Orthopaedics’ societies and those focussing on underrepresented groups, working to address implicit biases, lack of mentorship3, to act as role models and drive change at the leadership level4. Despite women representing close to 50% of medical graduates globally and an increasing percentage of practicing doctors in many nations, less than 5% of orthopaedic surgeons are female in most nations1,2,5. Gender bias and gender-based stereotypes in orthopaedics are pervasive, affecting women throughout their careers, from residency, to research and clinical work, to career advancement and compensation. Recruitment of qualified women into orthopaedics remains an issue, perpetuated by the negative perceptions of orthopaedic surgery as a career that have been disclosed by female medical students6-9. A perceived lack of
