Voices for change: Celebrating diversity within the AO
Lauren Tatman: My AO Access journey
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“Change will occur slowly and the first step is understanding that biases exist, and then changing systems to be more equitable.”
Lauren Tatman, MD
AO Trauma North America
AO Access Officer and Faculty Selection Processes Task Force
“A major goal for the AO Access Officer and Faculty Selection Processes Task Force is to develop a transparent, easily accessible application process with objective criteria across all clinical specialties,” she explains. “Equitable, fair application processes are in the best interest of minority and majority applicants as well as the organization. In comparison, application processes based on who the applicant knows instead of their experience and expertise will usually favor the majority group,” she explains.
The task force on which Tatman serves is seeking to track and understand whether AO faculty currently represent the learners at AO courses.
“An initial step for our task force is defining where we currently are, in order to understand where we can improve, or to identify if we are already well represented. We are working to develop objective data on the representation of our current faculty and our current learners,” she adds. “We also want to get more visibility for the faculty application process and make improvements in the transparency and objectivity of the faculty hiring practices. Being involved in AO Access, I’ve had the opportunity to gain more insight into the different solutions that everyone has; there’s no single, simple solution.”
Those insights are important because they can help the AO realize its mission of promoting excellence in patient care and outcomes in trauma and musculoskeletal disorders.
“A lot of decisions are made by physicians and surgeons for patients, and the more we reflect the general makeup of the patients, the better we can empathize and make decisions that are best for them,” Tatman says. “Most of our care is based on shared decision-making, but the more we can relate to our patients, the better care they get.”
The task force on which Tatman serves is seeking to track and understand whether AO faculty currently represent the learners at AO courses.
“An initial step for our task force is defining where we currently are, in order to understand where we can improve, or to identify if we are already well represented. We are working to develop objective data on the representation of our current faculty and our current learners,” she adds. “We also want to get more visibility for the faculty application process and make improvements in the transparency and objectivity of the faculty hiring practices. Being involved in AO Access, I’ve had the opportunity to gain more insight into the different solutions that everyone has; there’s no single, simple solution.”
Those insights are important because they can help the AO realize its mission of promoting excellence in patient care and outcomes in trauma and musculoskeletal disorders.
“A lot of decisions are made by physicians and surgeons for patients, and the more we reflect the general makeup of the patients, the better we can empathize and make decisions that are best for them,” Tatman says. “Most of our care is based on shared decision-making, but the more we can relate to our patients, the better care they get.”