Quickshot: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Landscape of American Venous Forum

A retrospective review was conducted of available scientific meeting programs and abstracts presented at the AVF from 2010 to 2023. The time period was divided into before 2019 and after 2019, as this was the year that SVS established the Task Force on DEI. Women’s participation was recorded for presenters, senior authors, moderators, committee members, committee chairs, and officers. Multiple DEI domains (race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, access to care, and health literacy) were documented for each year. Data are reported as percentages due to the number of positions and abstracts changing yearly. A two-sample unpaired t-test was used to compare mean percentages with a p-value of < 0.05 denoting statistical significance.

Results:

Compared to the Humphries data, there was a positive trend of women’s participation from 2020-2023 in every role, with the largest increase observed for senior authors (16.0% vs. 7.5%), moderators (30.2% vs. 12.6%), and officer positions (15.0% vs. 6.25%) (Table I). When comparing 2010-2019 vs. 2020-2023, the mean percentage of DEI domains has increased; however, there was no statistically significant difference over time except for the DEI variable age (1.34% vs. 3.28%, p=0.0008) (Table II). 

Conclusions:

Representation of women has expanded at the AVF and other professional vascular meetings, with positive strides since the creation of the SVS Task Force on DEI. However, to continue advancing DEI initiatives, more intentional efforts are needed to incorporate a wider range of DEI domains and reflect a diverse range of perspectives, expertise, and content.