Background Over the last two decades, medical schools and academic health centers have acknowledged the persistence of health disparities in their patients and the lack of diversity in their faculty, leaders and extended workforce. We established an Office of Health Equity and Inclusion (OHEI) at our pediatric academic medical center after a thorough evaluation of prior diversity initiatives and review of faculty development data. Objective To describe the lessons learned at a pediatric academic medical center in prioritizing and implementing health equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives in creating the OHEI. Materials and methodsWe reviewed internal administrative data and faculty development data, including data related to faculty who are underrepresented in medicine, to understand the role of our EDI initiatives in the strategic priorities addressed and lessons learned in the creation of the OHEI. ResultsThe intentional steps taken in our medical center's strategic approach in the creation of this office led to four important lessons to improve pediatric health equity: (1) board, senior executive and institutional prioritization of EDI initiatives;(2) multi-specialty and interprofessional collaboration; (3) academic approach to EDI programmatic development; and (4) intentionality with accountability in all EDI initiatives. ConclusionThe key lessons learned during the creation of an Office of Health Equity and Inclusion can provide guidance to other academic health centers committed to implementing institutional priorities that focus their EDI initiatives on the improvement of pediatric health equity.

Background: Increased telehealth services may not benefit communities already lacking access to care. Race, socioeconomic status, and insurance type are known to predict missed-care opportunities (MCO) in health care. We examined differences in pediatric orthopaedic telemedicine MCOs during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with MCOs of in-person visits in a prepandemic time frame. We hypothesized that groups with known health disparities would experience higher rates of pediatric orthopedic telemedicine MCOs. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed pediatric orthopaedic telemedicine MCOs during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown (March-May 2020) and in-person pediatric orthopaedic visit MCOs during a nonpandemic timeframe (March-May 2019). We examined predictors of MCOs including race, ethnicity, language, insurance status, and other socioeconomic determinants of health. Results: There were 1448 telemedicine appointments in the pandemic cohort and 8053 in-person appointments in the prepandemic cohort. Rates of telemedicine MCOs (12.5%; n=181) were significantly lower than in-person MCOs (19.5%; n=1566; P<0.001). Telemedicine appointments with public insurance or without insurance (P<0.001) and being Black or Hispanic/Latinx (P=0.003) were associated with MCOs. There were significant differences between in-person MCOs and telemedicine MCOs among all predictors studied, except for orthopaedic subspecialty team and patient’s social vulnerability index. Conclusions: Patients with telemedicine appointments during the COVID-19 pandemic were less likely to experience MCOs than patients with in-person visits during the nonpandemic timeframe. However, when controlling for socioeconomic factors including race, ethnicity, and insurance type, disparities found for in-person visits persisted with the shift to telemedicine. Pediatric orthopaedists should be aware that the use of telemedicine does not necessarily improve access for our most vulnerable patients. Level of Evidence: Level III.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess disparities in outpatient imaging missed care opportunities (IMCOs) for neonatal ultrasound by sociodemographic and appointment factors at a large urban pediatric hospital.Methods: A retrospective review was performed among patients aged 0 to 28 days receiving one or more outpatient appointments for head, hip, renal, or spine ultrasound at the main hospital or satellite sites from 2008 to 2018. An IMCO was defined as a missed ultrasound or cancellation <24 hours in advance. Population-average correlated logistic regression modeling estimated the odds of IMCOs for six sociodemographic (age, sex, race/ethnicity, language, insurance, and region of residence) and seven appointment (type of ultrasound, time, day, season, site, year, and distance to appointment) factors. The primary analysis included unknown values as a separate category, and the secondary analysis used multiple imputation to impute genuine categories from unknown variables. Results:The data set comprised 5,474 patients totaling 6,803 ultrasound appointments. IMCOs accounted for 4.4% of appointments. IMCOs were more likely for Black (odds ratio [OR], 3.31; P < .001) and other-race neonates (OR, 2.66; P < .001) and for patients with public insurance (OR, 1.78; P ¼ .002). IMCOs were more likely for appointments at the main hospital compared with satellites (P < .001), during work hours (P ¼ .021), and on weekends (P < .001). Statistical significance for primary and secondary analyses was quantitatively similar and qualitatively identical.Conclusions: Marginalized racial groups and those with public insurance had a higher rate of IMCOs in neonatal ultrasound. This likely represents structural inequities faced by these communities, and more research is needed to identify interventions to address these inequities in care delivery for vulnerable neonatal populations.

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