SROA members began Day 2 of SROA’s 2022 Annual Meeting with a general session called, “Centering Diversity in Radiation Oncology: The What, The Why, and The How.” Dr. Parul Berry, Dr. Jerry Jaboin and Dr. Ivy Franco provided historical context about diversity and shared some of the personal challenges they have encountered as radiation oncologists from underrepresented minority groups. They offered numerous concrete suggestions on how radiation oncology departments and centers can diversify their radiation oncologist staff and improve their retention. Some suggestions include: giving less weight to test scores; exploring more deeply the reasons for lower test scores (for example, due to lack of financial resources to take test prep courses); and having standardized questions for all interviewees. The panelists also talked about ways to improve retention such as ensuring that the HR partners have the appropriate expertise for specific circumstances.
March is Women’s History Month, a time to recognize the vital role of women in American history.
SROA’s Connect community offers members a platform to ask each other questions, share ideas, or, as the website says, “connect and collaborate.” We asked our Community members what women inspire them in honor of Women’s History Month. Here is a sampling of some of the responses we received.
This blog post sources its content from “Diversity Matters Revisited,” an article published in November 2020 in SROA’s quarterly news publication, Radiation Oncology News for Administrators.
This blog post sources its content from “Diversity Matters Revisited,” an article published in November 2020 in SROA’s quarterly news publication, Radiation Oncology News for Administrators.
Dr. Malika Siker, a radiation oncologist with the Medical College of Wisconsin, spoke about ways to advance equity, diversity and inclusiveness in radiation oncology. She concluded her talk by discussing what steps individuals can take to effect change.
“I find that showing people how to behave is better than telling them how”–– John Paul DeJoria
Lee Silber joined SROA to discuss generations during his “Generation We” webinar. Silber, an award-winning author of 26 books, including two best sellers, spoke about the multigenerational workforce, what makes each generation special and commonalities with each generation.
When she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, Kimberly Richardson didn’t have a positive experience. During recovery for what doctors thought was an ovarian cyst, she was tapped on her shoulder and told, “Kim, it’s cancer. We’ll talk with you about it when you’re fully awake.” Later, her oncologist scribbled her specific tumor type––Ovarian Granulosa Cell Tumor Stage 3A, a rare form of cancer—on the back of her referral. “I remember very clearly that my oncologist scribbled on the back of my referral for a follow-up test. It said ‘3A GCT.’ That was the very first time I was introduced to my stage and the type of cancer I had, and I had just met my oncologist,” she said.
“People misconstrue diversity. Diversity encompasses many groups depending upon what is underrepresented in the field,” said Dr. Maria L. Soto-Greene, who is nationally known for her work in diversity, inclusion, health equity and social justice. “Sometimes people equate diversity with underrepresented minorities, which leaves out the many identities that we have. Think about a person who is LGBTQ and also an underrepresented minority. When we fail to consider the assets of a diverse provider, we deprive our communities of the benefit that can be realized in their care.”
If you look at the top 20 specialties, radiation oncology ranks at the bottom with respect to women and minorities, so we need to figure out what we are not doing a good enough job at, recruiting these folks that are going into other specialties,” said Dr. Curtiland Deville, clinical director of Radiation Oncology at Sibley Memorial Hospital and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
This blog post sources its content from “Diversity Matters”, an article published in SROA’s quarterly news publication Radiation Oncology News for Administrators in April 2020.
Published studies and statistics show that cancer patients from underrepresented populations tend to have poorer health outcomes. According to a 2017 ASCO Post article, “In oncology, just 2% of the physician workforce self-identifies as black/African American and 3% as Hispanic/Latino. In addition, the proportion of black/African American and Hispanic/Latino oncology fellows is consistently lower than many other fellowships in subspecialties in internal medicine.”