Journal Supplement Provides Valuable Resource to Support Diversity in the Field of ID

A new collection of articles highlighting the science and complexity of inclusion, diversity, access, and equity is now available online, part of an ongoing commitment to drive improvements within the field of infectious diseases and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). Published as a supplement to The Journal of Infectious Diseases (JID), the IDSA-sponsored collection includes articles written by both Society members and authors outside the field with deep knowledge and seasoned perspectives on these important issues.

“We believe these articles provide a valuable resource to the infectious diseases community that will help to propel our field and our Society to improve clinical care for patients as we commit to a more diverse workforce and continue to attract the best and brightest to the field,” said IDSA President Cynthia L. Sears, MD, FIDSA. Drs. Sears, Preeti Malani, MD, FIDSA, and Carlos del Rio, MD, FIDSA, served as editors of the new supplement. “We look forward to the discussions, reflections, and progress that we hope will follow this publication.”

Following an introduction, the journal supplement begins with a summary of the principles that guide IDSA’s Inclusion, Diversity, Access & Equity (IDA&E) Task Force, which was established in 2018 following a formal review of the Society’s governance structure. Additional articles address key areas, including:

• Data identifying the contributions of diversity to both individual and organizational success, along with knowledge gaps that still need to be filled;
• How the understanding of diversity has evolved within the field of ID, in part due to the HIV epidemic;
• The “Be Ethical Campaign,” which challenges medical systems to consider that diversity is required for the ethical practice of medicine;
• The concept of cultural humility along with the need to understand unconscious bias and its impacts on judgment and the workplace;
• Transforming institutional culture and climate to promote IDA&E in order to advance training, research, and health care delivery;
• The development of IDSA’s current IDA&E initiative, how these principles are integrated into the Society’s daily work and governance, and insights into how IDSA can achieve its goals in these areas moving forward.

The newly published supplement, “Inclusion, Diversity, Access, and Equity: Enhancing the Future of Infectious Diseases,” appears with the Sept. 15 issue of JID and is available online: https://academic.oup.com/jid/issue/220/Supplement_2