(1103) Association of Away Rotation Scholarships With Racial and Ethnic Minority Diversity in Otolaryngology

Introduction: With long-standing minority underrepresentation and new requirements for residency programs to employ strategies to improve diversity, many otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (OHNS) programs are offering financial scholarships for visiting student electives to attract diverse applicants. The goal of this study was to examine the association between recruitment strategies and racial/ethnic diversity in OHNS residency programs.

Methods: OHNS programs were identified using the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) database for 2023-2024 academic year. Data on residents, availability of visiting student diversity scholarships, and covariates such as cohort size, region, and location were collected from program websites. A validated Bayesian prediction model was used to assign racial/ethnic categories (White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, or other) based on resident surname and/or US Census geolocation. Underrepresented in medicine (URiM) included Black and Hispanic residents. Our main outcome was the number of URiM residents per program.

Results: We analyzed data from 112 OHNS programs with a total of 1,885 residents. Preliminary findings showed 39.3% of programs offered away rotation scholarships. Based on imputation, the resident racial/ethnic distribution was 54.4% White, 22.3% Asian, 4.46 % Hispanic, and 4.51% Black. On univariate analysis, programs offering scholarships had more URiM compared to programs that did not offer scholarships (OR = 1.63 [95% CI, 1.26–2.1], p < 0.001). When controlling for covariates, programs offering scholarships still trended to have more URiM (OR = 1.3 [95% CI, 0.91–1.87], p = 0.15).

Conclusions: These preliminary results suggest efforts in minority recruitment and retention are improving in one of the most competitive and least diverse specialties. While this is the first study to explore recruitment strategies, further data is needed to assess trends over time and identify specific barriers to entry for URiM in OHNS programs.