Without prejudice
Article Outline
Thank you, Dr. Lumsden, for your kind remarks. It has been an honor and privilege to serve as President of the Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery this past year. I don't believe we have enough opportunities to thank people who helped us throughout our careers, so I'd like to take extra time to thank people for their mentorship and friendship.
First, I want to thank my predecessor, William Brown, MD, who was generous with his time and wisdom in helping me this past year. Bill also provided one of the most memorable weekends in the life of my 10-year-old son, Anthony. Anthony's favorite college football team is the University of Michigan Wolverines. When Bill learned that my son was as passionate a fan of Big Blue as he is, he invited my wife Ina, Anthony, and me to spend a weekend in Ann Arbor and see a University of Michigan football game with him. It was a great weekend. Bill, thanks for everything.
Next, I want to thank the vascular fellows who have trained at Pennsylvania Hospital. One of the reasons I really enjoy my job is the opportunity to train these bright and talented individuals. Of our last fourteen fellows, twelve made the trip here, along with a couple past and current general surgery residents. I deeply appreciate it.
Next, I want to thank my partner of fifteen years, Matthew Dougherty, MD. Matt is one of my closest friends and someone who I can always count on. He's a very dedicated physician and also one of the brightest people I know.
I've been extremely fortunate to have had four outstanding mentors who took particular interest in my professional career. During my general surgery residency in Chicago, Dale Buchbinder, MD, was Chief of Vascular Surgery and took me under his wing. Under his guidance, my interest in vascular surgery blossomed. He would personally take me to weekly city-wide vascular conferences at Northwestern Hospital under John Bergan. Dale taught me how to take care of complicated vascular patients. He also was instrumental in helping me get an eagerly sought vascular fellowship under the direction of Frank Veith, MD, in New York.
After my residency in Chicago, I was fortunate enough to train under Dr. Veith at Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Veith continues to be one of the best known and respected vascular surgeons in the country. Frank was certainly a taskmaster but was totally committed to his fellows and to vascular surgery. He emphasized that all operations should be done the right way the first time, which requires an exacting technique and the surgeon's full focus. He taught me how to write articles and how to be a meticulous editor. Dr. Veith was instrumental in my becoming one of the first and youngest members of the Vascular Surgery Board of the American Board of Surgery. Dr. Veith is unsurpassed in his devotion and passion for vascular surgery and continues to fight enthusiastically and relentlessly for our independence as a specialty. Frank, on behalf of all vascular surgeons, thank you for all of your efforts and I appreciate everything that you've done for me.
After my vascular fellowship, I came to Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia in 1989 and joined Dominic DeLaurentis, MD. Dom had just completed his tenure as President of this Society three months before I joined him. Dr. DeLaurentis appointed me Program Director of our vascular surgery fellowship a few years after joining him. One of the biggest thrills of my professional life was to be present at those meetings with Dom when the Association of Program Directors in Vascular Surgery was formed. It was a very exciting time for someone like me who was a few years out of completing my fellowship to be involved with something of such importance. Dr. DeLaurentis later appointed me Chief of Vascular Surgery. I want to thank him for always being available to talk things over and giving sage advice. Dom and his wife Molly were always very gracious and caring, and he always treated me in a paternal way. Dom, thanks for everything.
The fourth mentor I want to thank is Enrico Ascher, MD. He helped train me during my fellowship and has helped me immeasurably in my professional life. He is also one of my closest friends. Dr. Ascher has also served as a past President of this Society. Along with Dr. Veith, Enrico taught me the fine technique necessary to achieve excellent results in vascular surgery. I consider Enrico to be one of the brightest and most creative thinkers in vascular surgery today. I have always admired Enrico for being able to think “outside the box” and for encouraging all of us to be as imaginative as possible in the operating room and during one's career. He has a great sense of humor and a great sense of loyalty. Enrico, our friendship is one that I will always treasure.
Although he was not involved in my training, Robert Hobson, II, MD, was an individual who I greatly respected, and for reasons I am not aware of, took a keen interest in my career. He was one of the true great leaders in vascular surgery, and we will all miss him.
There are two other individuals who I came to know during my training many years ago and whom I want to thank for their long friendships. Al LaBorde, MD, was two years junior to me during our general surgery training in Chicago. He has mentioned that I influenced his choice of vascular surgery as a career when I was his senior resident. I've always been flattered by that comment, not only because I respect Al so much for his great ability as a vascular surgeon, but also for his strong family values and principles. Al flies from Texas to Philadelphia every spring to attend an annual vascular symposium we hold at Pennsylvania Hospital, and Ina and Anthony look forward to seeing him almost as much as I do.
Another person I want to thank for his friendship, sense of humor, and great times together is Alan Dietzek, MD. Alan and I met during our vascular fellowship in New York under Dr. Veith. We call each other almost every week to commiserate about our tough cases and congratulate each other on our outstanding successes. Alan works as hard as anyone I know, but also always reserves time for family and friends. I cherish his sense of humor and his friendship.
Lastly, I want to thank my family for being here: my Mom, my older brother Bruce and his wife Diana, and my younger brother Greg. I love you all very much, and you've always been there for me. My Dad passed away about ten years ago, and he would have been immensely proud to share in this occasion.
Lastly, I want to thank the two people who are closest to my heart. The youngest member of the audience today is my 10-year-old son Anthony. Although being President of this society is certainly my highest professional achievement, my proudest accomplishment is the type of person he's turning out to be. He's a sports fanatic and a very bright kid, and it was very frustrating when he started beating me in chess when he was 5 years old. But most importantly, he has a great heart, and is kind and considerate to his friends. Anthony, I love you, and I'm very proud of you.
Lastly, I want to thank my wife Ina for so many things. We've been married for almost 24 years, and I am continuously amazed by everything she fits into every day. Despite a full-time job as Assistant Dean at Temple School of Pharmacy, Ina manages to get Anthony to school on time at the beginning of the day, arranges to get him to soccer and basketball and baseball practice at the end of the day, and is the one who knows how to fix his Play Station when it doesn't work. She's always there for me and is my best friend. Ina is the most understanding and compassionate person I know, and she's the most beautiful woman in the world to me. Ina, I love you very much.
As I mentioned, I don't think we get a chance to thank people as much as we should, and I thank all of you for your patience.
The Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery has evolved to become a very prestigious national vascular organization, as demonstrated by the outstanding leaders in vascular surgery who have served as Presidents before me. A few years ago, I was struck by a comment that Peter Gloviczki made when he announced that the new President of this Society would be Enrico Ascher. Peter stated quite proudly to the audience that he was glad the new incoming President also had an accent. My four grandparents had very strong accents, so his comments resonated very strongly with me. As I thought about what he said, I was struck by the fact that many of the past Presidents of the Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery were not even born in this country, and all of the past Presidents are descendants of people who came to this country simply for a better life and the knowledge that hard work can go a long way.
It seemed to me that this society, maybe as much or even more so than any other, had a tradition of recognizing individuals who worked very hard and were very dedicated to vascular surgery. And these individuals were recognized and rewarded for their efforts without regard to their accent or background but instead were chosen without prejudice for their talents and abilities.
Therefore, I would like to honor the Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery's past Presidents. Specifically, I want to highlight the background of ten past Presidents who strongly influenced my career, either as mentors or through their friendship. Time prohibits me from detailing the background of all of the past Presidents of this society, and I hope I do not offend those not included in this address. It was a lot of fun learning about the backgrounds of the following ten individuals and gathering their family photos, although my wife would ask me why I was looking at baby pictures of Enrico Ascher and John Ricotta at one o'clock in the morning while I was working on this presentation.
I would like to start with Herb Dardik, MD, who is considered one of the founding fathers of the Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery. I have known Dr. Dardik since I finished my fellowship and have always felt a certain kinship with Herb because of our common association with Dr. DeLaurentis and Dr. Veith. Dr. Dardik's maternal ancestors came from Russia near the Volga River and were Orthodox Jewish scholars. His mother lived through terrible times in the early 1900s including famine, carts loaded with dead bodies, and even cannibalism. His father was a shoe-maker who secretly wed his mother when he was 20 and she was 15. He served in the Red Army and was scheduled for execution for mailing a package of butter to his mother, but the night before he was to die, a friend rescued him. Another time, his father had to jump from a moving train to escape from the Red Army. Herb's parents left Russia and traveled through Hamburg, Germany in 1924 on their way to New York. Herb's parents settled in Long Branch, New Jersey in the mid 1920s. His father became a Talmudic scholar, and indeed “Dardik” means “teacher of children.” Herb's mother became a seamstress in a factory and was the main bread-winner. From such humble beginnings, Herb's siblings became a bookkeeper, artist, schoolteacher, oral surgeon, and vascular surgeon. Dr. Dardik has three children, all of whom are in medicine and one is a vascular surgeon at Yale. Herb and his wife Janet currently live in Englewood, New Jersey, where he is Chief of Vascular Surgery at Englewood Hospital, which is about half an hour from where I grew up.
Dominic DeLaurentis, MD, served as the 10th President of the SCVS. I know this honor was one of his proudest accomplishments. All of Dom's ancestors come from the Abruzzo area of Italy. Dom's paternal grandfather came from Italy as an immigrant worker for the railroads in 1914 and worked primarily in western Pennsylvania. He came to America to earn money for his wife and five children who remained in Italy. He died in 1918 from the flu epidemic while in the process of trying to bring his family to the United States. Dom's father was born in 1900 in a mountain-castle town in the Abruzzo area. He father fought in the Italian army during World War I on the Austrian front. In 1920 he immigrated to the United States. He first lived with his uncle in Wayne, PA and worked as a laborer on the Schmidt beer estate and then as a barber. Dom's father returned to Italy in 1924. Dom's maternal grandfather lived in the Abruzzi area of Italy and came to America in 1890 and worked as a stone mason on the grand mansions on the Mainline area of Philadelphia. He brought his wife to America in 1901 and they lived in a house in Philadelphia a couple blocks from where Pennsylvania Hospital is currently located. Dom's mother was born in 1903 in that house. Dom's grandmother complained of the bad air, crime, and cold in Philadelphia, and they moved back to Italy in 1905. Dom's mother and father were living in Italy when they married in 1924, and Dom was born there a year later. Dom came to New York in 1928 when he was three years old. In 1929, Dom's parents opened up a barber shop and bought a house in Philadelphia, and Dom's younger brother was born. Dr. DeLaurentis went on to achieve a varsity high school letter in gymnastics, served in the US Army during World War II, and was trained as a surgical technician. Not only did Dr. DeLaurentis go on to become President of this society and the Eastern Vascular Society, but many of you may not be aware that he also served as the first President of the Association of Program Directors in Surgery in 1983. Dom's wife Molly was fully supportive of his academic and professional accomplishments, and she was very proud of him. We miss Molly and wish she could be here today. Dom, thanks for everything.
Bruce Brener, MD, was the 17th President of the Society. His paternal grandparents were from Lithuania and came to the United States in the early 1900s. They had an “arranged” marriage and lived in Asbury Park, NJ. His paternal grandfather was a cabinet-maker who spoke only Yiddish. Bruce's father had four siblings, was the only one who went to college, and became a dentist. Bruce's maternal family came from Poland. His great grandfather was a shoe manufacturer. His grandmother came to the United States with her parents in 1901 and began working in a mill at age 14. Bruce's maternal grandfather escaped the Pogroms (systematic killing of Jews) and the Russian Army. He was drafted and was about to be sent to fight in the Russian-Japanese War in his late teens but, similar to Dr. Dardik's father, Bruce's grandfather jumped from a moving train, fell into a hole, and avoiding a passing train. He left his family and native country and migrated to the United States in 1906. He married and opened various “dry goods” stores in Jersey City. Bruce's mother did not finish college until many years later when Bruce was in high school, and she became a teacher and recently celebrated her 93rd birthday. Dr. Brener is currently Chief of Vascular Surgery at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, NJ and Director of the Vascular Center of the St. Barnabas Health Care System.
Peter Gloviczki, MD, was the 21st President of the SCVS. Dr. Gloviczki's comments were the inspiration for this address. The Gloviczki family has lived in northeastern Hungary for several generations but likely are descendants of Polish immigrants. Peter's paternal grandfather was a photographer. Peter's father was a family physician, internist, and neurologist. Interestingly, his father went to the same medical school in Hungary that Emerick Szilagy, MD, attended. This medical school was also the same school attended by Peter Kalman's father. Dr. Kalman currently serves as Chief of Vascular Surgery at Loyola. Dr. Gloviczki's maternal family originated in Germany but lived in Hungary for at least two centuries, including during the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy. Peter's maternal grandfather was a family practitioner in a small town in Hungary, and this fact may have been the spark that led to Peter eventually becoming a physician. Peter was born in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary on May 5, 1948 and lived there until he was 8 years old. He has three brothers and one sister, and his oldest brother became a neurologist. Who would have thought that a boy born in a small town in Hungary could rise to become Chief of Vascular Surgery at one of the premier medical centers in the United States, and in the world, namely the Mayo Clinic? Peter, thank you for your inspiration and friendship.
John Ricotta, MD, was the 23rd President of the SCVS. All of Dr. Ricotta's ancestors came from Palermo, Sicily. His paternal relatives were mountain farmers. His paternal grandfather came to the United States when he was 13 years old with his older brother and worked as a mason. His father was the first in the family to go to college, and the first to go to medical school, and he continued to work as a laborer during both college and medical school. John's father became a family practitioner and charged the exorbitant fee of five dollars per year per family for about 500 families from his ancestral town. He fought in the Korean War, and when he returned, he completed an obstetrics-gynecology residency and practiced in Buffalo, New York for about forty years. John's maternal ancestors were fishermen. His maternal grandparents came to the United States and worked by selling fruits and vegetables off a wagon and then eventually improved their status by selling their wares off a truck. His mother was the only maternal relative who went to college and she became a teacher. Dr. Ricotta currently lives on Long Island with his wife Gloria. They have three children, one of who is a vascular surgeon and all three of whom are in medicine. Dr. Ricotta serves as Chairman of the Department of Surgery and Chief of Vascular Surgery at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, Long Island.
Enrico Ascher, MD, served as the 24th President of the SCVS. Enrico's great grandfather grew up in Italy and moved to Cairo, Egypt in the late 1800's. He worked as a businessman and married a high society Jewish woman from Egypt. Their son, Enrico's grandfather, developed a large printing business in Cairo and married a woman of Italian descent. One of their sons, Enrico's father, managed one of Egypt's three oil companies by the time he was in mid-thirties. Enrico's maternal grandfather also had a talent in business, and by the time he was 29 year old, he owned two banks, a moving company, and a casino. His wife had origins in Spain. Their daughter, Enrico's mother, was born in Egypt. And Enrico was also born in Cairo, Egypt. In 1956, Enrico and his family fled Egypt when General Abdal Nasser rose to power and anti-semitism became widespread. They moved to Italy, then France, and finally to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1958 for more economic opportunities. When they settled in Rio de Janeiro, Enrico's mother managed her own clothing store. Since then, Enrico is the only member of his family to have left Brazil. He has obviously prospered and has served as President of the Eastern Vascular Society, the Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery, and the Society for Vascular Surgery. Enrico is currently Chief of Vascular Surgery at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. A success story indeed.
Kim Hodgson, MD, was the 25th President of the SCVS. His paternal grandparents emigrated from Sweden and settled in Chicago in the 1930s. His maternal grandparents emigrated from Germany and also settled in the Chicago area. His father served in World War II as a bomb group navigator, and after the war, as an electrical engineer for Bell Labs. Kim grew up in Whittier, CA, Charlotte, NC, and lastly Scotch Plains, NJ. His parents had four sons, and Kim was the second eldest. I wonder if some of the engineering genes from his father influenced Kim and were the spark for his early passion for endovascular interventions at a time in the 1990s when many vascular surgeons had the attitude “I don't do balloons and stents, I'm a surgeon.” Kim should get a great deal of credit from vascular surgeons for his foresightedness and energy in pushing all of us forward in the endovascular arena. Kim is currently Chief of Vascular Surgery at Southern Illinois University in Springfield, Il.
Peter Lawrence, MD, was the 26th President of the Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery. His maternal ancestors were from Scotland and Ireland and migrated to the United States before the American Revolution. His maternal grandfather was a farmer in New Jersey and the first in his family to go to college. Peter's mother's family eventually settled in Pennsylvania and owned a large farm. Peter's grandmother and all of her 12 siblings went to college. Peter's paternal ancestors are from England and the Netherlands. They also came to America before the Revolution and founded Pelham, NY. They eventually settled in Newark and Montclair, New Jersey. Although primarily they were farmers, one owned a large wholesale fish market, which later became the Fulton Fish Market in lower Manhattan. Peter's father went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, became an engineer for RCA, had over 100 patents, and helped design the landing system for the Apollo spacecraft. Peter has two sons, and his wife Karen is President of Sarah Lawrence College. Despite the fact that no one else in his family had been a doctor, Peter chose medicine as his career and is currently Chief of Vascular Surgery at UCLA.
Anton Sidawy, MD, was the 27th President of the SCVS. One of his great great grandfathers was a Christian preacher who frequently traveled from Damascus, Syria to Sidon, Lebanon to preach. The town of Sidon is a seaport city on the Mediterranean sea in Lebanon, and this town is the origin of “Sidawy.” Tony's maternal grandfather was an engineer from Bulgaria who worked on the railroad connecting Turkey with Damascus, known as the Orient Express. His maternal grandmother migrated to America in the early 1900s and settled in Brooklyn, where Tony still has family. Although his father aspired to become a doctor, financial problems during the Depression forced him to change career goals and he ultimately became Vice President of a bank in Syria. Tony's father was the strongest influence on him becoming a physician and encouraged Tony to come to the United States for his training. Dr. Sidawy and his wife Mary came to the United States in 1978, but Tony's parents stayed behind in Damascus. Mary is currently Chief of Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University Medical Center. Tony and Mary have a daughter, Michelle, who graduated from Georgetown and a son, Nicholas, who is attending Carnegie-Mellon. Dr. Sidawy currently serves as Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Washington, D.C., VA Hospital. In a few months, Dr. Sidawy will be appointed President-elect of our other national vascular society, the Society for Vascular Surgery.
My predecessor, William Brown, MD was the 28th President of the SCVS. Dr. Brown's maternal grandparents emigrated from Russia in the early 1900s and settled in New York because that's where they landed and they had no family in America. His paternal grandfather was born in 1885 near Kiev in the Ukraine and his paternal grandmother was born in 1889 near Minsk, Russia. They both migrated to the United States in 1907. They were married in New York in 1911, where his grandfather worked as a peddler. They later moved to South Carolina because his grandmother had family there and operated general stores. They eventually moved to Baltimore where his paternal grandfather went into the liquor business after Prohibition. His paternal grandparents had six children, two of whom became doctors, including Bill's father. Bill's father took the position of Chief of Anesthesiology at Sinai Hospital in Detroit, MI, where Bill grew up. Dr. Brown is currently Interim-Chief of Vascular Surgery at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, MI and at William Beaumont Hospital and Adjunct Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law.
Essentially all of my relatives were from the Dolomite region of Italy, which is in the far northern part of the country in the Alps bordering Switzerland, Austria, and France. My paternal great-grandfather was the mayor of his town in Italy. Interestingly, all four of my grandparents grew up in the same small town in northern Italy, but the two couples did not know each other. They migrated to the United States and arrived at Ellis Island in New York about 1900. Each couple settled in the same town in northern New Jersey, Clifton, where each family had relatives in the area. My paternal grandfather ran a tavern during prohibition (Fig 1). He and my grandmother strongly valued education. Their eldest son, my uncle, became a family practitioner and had a strong influence on my choice of medicine as a career. Their middle son became chief civil engineer for the water works of Passaic County, New Jersey. My father became a podiatric surgeon and served as President of the New Jersey Podiatry Society in the early 1960s. My maternal grandparents married in Italy, had a son and a daughter born there, and then migrated to the United States where my mother was born (Fig 2). My maternal grandfather worked in a chemical plant doing menial work in America. Their son became a machinist. My mom realized her dream and went to college when she was about 40 years old and became an elementary school teacher afterwards.
Fig 1.
Dr. Keith Calligaro's paternal grandparents and their children.
Fig 2.
Dr. Keith Calligaro's maternal grandparents and their children.
So in summary, four of the ten past Presidents of this Society that I chose to highlight were born outside the United States. And most of the remaining Presidents, including myself, had grandparents that were born in other countries. Most of them came from very humble backgrounds, were poorly educated, and came to the United States for a better life. And wouldn't these grandparents and parents who came from such diversified backgrounds and countries, including Russia, the Ukraine, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Egypt, Spain, Sweden, Germany, England, the Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, Bulgaria, Syria, and Lebanon, be so proud to be in this audience at this time? In my opinion the past leaders of this society have acted without prejudice in choosing these past ten Presidents and have justly rewarded their hard work and dedication to our specialty.
Have we done everything we possible can to be inclusive? Although I believe the past leaders of this society have acted without prejudice when choosing future leaders, we can do more. We need to be more inclusive of females, African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and other minorities as officers of this and other societies. Comparison of medical school graduates and applicants to general surgery (GS) and vascular surgery (VS) training programs would prove useful to determine if VS programs are maintaining the applicant pool of these minorities1, 2 (Table I, Table II). Until very recently, VS applicants had to complete a five-year training program in GS. Applicants to GS programs in 2003 would have been the applicant pool to VS programs in 2007, since GS residents generally apply to VS programs in their fourth year of residency. A comparison was made of medical school applicants to GS programs in 2003 with the most recent data from medical school applicants to GS applicants in 2007 to determine if there have been significant changes between these two groups, and they appear similar (Table II). Comparison of applicants to other surgical specialties such as orthopedic and colorectal surgery was also included.
Table I. Total U.S. medical school graduates by race and ethnicity within sex. Class of 2007 (AAMC)⁎
| Men | 51% (8,217/16,139) |
| Women | 49%(7,922/16,139) |
| White | 64%(10,307/16,139) |
| Asian | 20%(3,296/16,139) |
| Hispanic | 7%(1,105/16,139) |
| Black | 7%(1,087/16,139) |
⁎Association of American Medical Colleges.1 Includes “no race responses.” Category totals may not add to the total graduates since a person could designate multiple categories. |
Table II. Surgical residency applicants (ERAS/AAMC)⁎
| General Surgery 2003 | General Surgery 2007 | Vascular 2007 | Orthopedics 2007 | Colorectal 2007 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 75%(3,294/4,376) | 71%(4,456/6,298) | 84%(128/152) | 88%(1,253/1,421) | 73%(83/113) |
| Female | 25%(1,082/4,376) | 29%(1,842/6,298) | 16%(24/152) | 12%(168/1,421) | 27%(30/113) |
| White | 53%(2,161/4,091) | 49%(2,801/5,699) | 61%(84/138) | 69%(916/1,336) | 58%(63/108) |
| Asian | 33%(1,350/4,091) | 34%(1,942/5,699) | 28%(39/138) | 18%(245/1,336) | 23%(25/108) |
| Black | 7%(276/4,091) | 8%(475/5,699) | 6%(8/138) | 6%(86/1,336) | 11%(12/108) |
| Other | 7%(304/4,091) | 8%(481/5,699) | 5%(7/138) | 7%(89/1,336) | 7%(8/108) |
| Hispanic | 10%(348/3,494) | 14%(604/4,409) | 13%(17/128) | 9%(103/1,100) | 10%(9/86) |
| Not Hispanic | 90%(3,146/3,494) | 86%(3,805/4,409) | 87%(111/128) | 91%(997/1,100) | 90%(77/86) |
⁎Electronic Residency Application Service, a program of the Association of American Medical Colleges.2 Percentages based on number of respondents. |
Increasing the number of females in leadership positions in vascular surgery would appear to be relatively easy since women comprised 49% (7,922/16,139) of graduating medical students in 2007.1 However, although approximately half of graduating medical students were females, only 29% (1,842/6,298) of applicants to GS positions in 2007 were women and only 16% (24/152) of applicants to VS fellowships were women. This figure compares favorably to orthopedic surgery (12% [168/1,421]) but not as favorably with colorectal surgery (27% [30/113]; Table II).2 Some of the underlying reasons for the low percentage of females choosing VS as a career are the perceived poor lifestyle of vascular surgeons and lack of mentors.3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Twenty percent (3,296/16,139) of graduating 2007 U.S. medical students were of Asian descent. Fully one-third (34% [1,942/5,699]) of applicants to GS programs were Asian. The percent of applicants to VS programs was somewhat lower (28% [39/138]). The percent of Asian applicants was even lower for orthopedic (18% [245/1,336]) and colorectal (23% [25/108]) positions.
Hispanics represented 7% (1,105/16,139) of graduating U.S. medical students in 2007. There were higher percentages of Hispanic applicants applying to GS (14% [604/4,409]), VS (13% [17/128]), orthopedic (9% [103/1,100]), and colorectal (10% [9/86]) positions compared to the percentage of graduating Hispanic medical students.
Seven percent (1,087/16,139) of graduating U.S. medical students were African-Americans. There were similar percentage of applicants to GS (8% [475/5,699]), VS (6% [8/138]), orthopedic (6% [86/1,336]), and colorectal (11% [12/108]) programs.
One can only speculate as to why the percentage of female and Asian applicants to GS programs was higher than to VS programs, while the percentage of Hispanic and African-American applicants to GS and VS programs were very similar.
I want to point out to the younger vascular surgeons in the audience that regardless of one's background, an individual can go very far in this Society with hard work. And I'd like to think that most of us believe that's true for our country also. But I want to make a plea to the young people in this audience to get involved and to make a name for yourselves as the best and the brightest in our specialty. Some of the future leaders of vascular surgery are in this audience. For our part, leaders of this society need to encourage minorities to participate in committees and programs and ultimately assume key leadership positions. Get involved.
In closing, I am not aware of any instances in this Society where someone was excluded, or not rewarded, for working hard because of prejudiced attitudes. It has been an immense honor to serve as President of the Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery. I hope one day soon someone will be at this podium showing slides of past Presidents of this Society who happened to be women or other minorities. Thank you.
References
- AAMC Statistics for total U.S. medical school graduates by race and ethnicity within sex 2002-2007. http//www.aamc.org/data/facts2007/gradraceeth0207.htmAccessed February 15, 2008
- ERAS Statistics for fellowship specialties: vascular surgery (AAMC). http://www.aamc.org/programs/eras/progrmas/statistics/fellowship/vascsurg.htmAccessed February 15, 2008
- . Characteristics of the applicant pool to vascular surgery residency programs. J Vasc Surg. 2005;42:519–523
- . Choice of vascular surgery as a specialty: survey of vascular surgery residents, general surgery chief residents, and medical students at hospital with vascular surgery training programs. J Vasc Surg. 2004;40:978–984
- . Surgical residents I the 1990s: issues and concerns for men and women. Arch Surg. 1995;130:24–28
- Shortell CK, Cook C. The importance of gender-specific role models in vascular surgery. Vascular (in press).
- . Presidential address: Generations apart – bridging the generational divide in vascular surgery. J Vasc Surg. 2003;38:1147–1153
Competition of interest: none.
Presented at the Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery, Las Vegas, Nev., March 7, 2008.
PII: S0741-5214(08)00480-1
doi:10.1016/j.jvs.2008.03.044
© 2008 The Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
