The Critical Role of the Neurology Diversity Officer in Serving Our Patients, Profession, and the Neurology Pipeline

We write this editorial after experiencing a 10-month global pandemic that has disproportionately affected marginalized racial and ethnic communities. We write this editorial with heightened focus on the historical impact that structurally racist policies have had on justice, housing, education, and (most applicably to this readership) health care systems. We write this editorial after this last year also revealed some hard truth(s) regarding the direct and historic connections between the institution of slavery and current medical research,¹ medical education,² and the traditions and practices of some of our most respected academic medical centers.³ This contextual lens placed even greater relevance to the article by Mohile et al.,⁴ “Developing the Neurology Diversity Officer: A Roadmap for Academic Neurology Departments,” in this issue of Neurology®. The authors present various roles and unique challenges that the neurology diversity officer or equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI) equivalent officers (NDOE) and the academic community must consider to create inclusive academic neurology communities. Arguably, the events and experiences over the last year provide the most substantial evidence for the requisite role of the NDOE in our effort to fulfill the oath to serve the following stakeholders: (1) our patients (who are becoming increasingly diverse as noted in the article),⁴ (2) ourselves and our pipeline (who are not only expecting but increasingly demanding a greater focus on EDI in the interprofessional healthcare environment),⁵ and (3) our research (which increasingly requires the inclusion of a diverse participant enrollment in all clinical and therapeutic research protocols).^6,7 Dating back to 1957, Merton spoke of the critical role of the medical education experience in cultivating the professional identity of a physician.⁸ More recently, the Carnegie Foundation developed this concept further by citing professional identity formation as 1 of the 4 primary concepts to target in medical curricular reform.⁹ Professional identity formation is defined as the process by which the learner is shepherded through his or her transformation into a “physician with the values, disposition, and aspirations of the physician community.”⁸ A strong professional identity has been linked to training physicians who deliver higher-quality care.¹⁰ Progress toward fulfilling the oath to serve our 3 aforementioned stakeholders makes it increasingly apparent that the presence of NDOE is paramount to both the transformation and maintenance of the neurologist's professional identity.⁹