No Confidence Diversity Letter Rocks AAOS

The letter must have hit like a bomb on June 19, 2020 at the headquarters of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

A consortium of Black and Brown surgeon members of the Academy calling itself Concerned Faces of Orthopaedics, sent a letter of “No Confidence” to the new Academy president.

Signed by 80 surgeons, the letter stated the Academy’s history of addressing “diversity, inclusion and discrimination has been abysmal.” Because of the Academy’s continued “opposition to consider, debate, or incorporate tactics and strategies designed to support its diverse members,” the letter serves as a “vote of no confidence in the leadership of the AAOS.”

The letter must have stung extra hard because the current and immediate past leadership has been very public about efforts to get the Academy to look more like the patients surgeons serve and keep the organization relevant to future orthopedic surgeons.

Joseph A. Bosco, III M.D., the Academy’s president replied immediately.

In a June 22, 2020 letter to concerned members, Bosco wrote, “The simple truth is that, despite our best efforts and intensions, we have not made visible progress in forming a more diverse and inclusive AAOS.”

Immediate past president, Kristy Weber, M.D. told OTW, “The current and past culture of orthopaedic surgery (and the AAOS) is not inclusive or diverse, as evidenced by all available metrics, and I wholeheartedly agree that we MUST change in order to be relevant to future members or society. The recent focus of the AAOS Board of Directors is on strategy, governance, and culture with the end goal to implement real change toward the specific issues raised by Concerned Faces.”

Diagnosis

In typical surgeon fashion, the “Concerned Faces” diagnosed the pain, identified the mechanisms of action, and went to work to fix the problem.

Noting that after the horrific murders of unarmed Black men under the color of law, Bosco, indicated that the Academy “stands” with its members of color and, “…although words are important, deeds matter most.” But from the standpoint of the Concerned Faces, recent AAOS deeds “have clearly demonstrated that, to the governance of the Academy, diversity doesn’t matter.”

Mechanisms of Action

These acts, according to the group include:

• Demotion of the Diversity Advisory Board from a committee of the Board of Directors itself, to a committee that no longer has direct responsibilities to act nor report to the Board on matters regarding diversity, equity and inclusion.
• No monetary, administrative, or statistical resources allocated directly from the AAOS to data proven pipeline programs who successfully identify, recruit, and retain underrepresented minorities and women into Orthopedic Surgery in general and into the Academy in particular.
• Recent election of an overwhelmingly white, all male AAOS Nominating Committee, which is responsible for guiding the selection process of the presidential line and determining the at-large membership of the Board of Directors.

Since the delivery of the letter, the group told OTW they removed a claim that the Academy had defunded diversity societies.

The group reminded Bosco that he has stated as an Academy principle, “…our Academy and its leadership ought to look more like the population we serve.”

However, this year, as in the majority of years past, there were no women and no underrepresented minority members elected to the Nominating Committee. “It is reasonable to conclude that the selection of an all-male and overwhelming white group to this critically important committee may, in fact, be in line with the Academy’s actual principles.

“In light of the past and present actions of the AAOS, it is difficult to have faith in the words submitted by its current leadership. James Baldwin, noted American novelist, essayist and activist once said, ‘I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.’”