Advancing Student Preparedness and Involvement for Representation and Equity in Surgery (ASPIRES): A Pipeline for Increasing Heterogeneity in Surgery

Purpose Despite the importance of representation, diversity within the surgical field has remained largely unchanged. To aid in addressing this, the Advancing Student Preparedness and Involvement for Representation and Equity in Surgery (ASPIRES) was founded with the goal of providing early exposure and mentorship to URiM students within the field of surgery. Method First-year URiM medical students were paired one-on-one with surgical faculty who volunteered to serve as mentors. Mentees joined mentors in clinic, the operating room, and for career development meetings over a 7-month period. Surveys and publicly available institutional match data were used to collect information on ASPIRES’ influence on participants to pursue a surgical residency and corresponding match outcomes. Results Responses from 35 URiM students from the first two graduating ASPIRES cohorts (2021 and 2022) were included. Overall, 19 of 27 students (70%) matched into surgery. From the class of 2021, 11 of 17 students (64%), and from the class of 2022, 8 of 10 students (80%), matched into surgical subspecialties, respectively. The majority (83%) of participants who matched into surgery responded to our electronic survey and reported that ASPIRES significantly influenced their decision to pursue a surgical career. Conclusions ASPIRES aims to address the persistent lack of diversity in surgery by strengthening the pipeline of students applying into surgical specialties through early exposure and mentorship. With over two-thirds of our inaugural ASPIRES cohort applying to or matriculating into surgical residencies, we demonstrate the potential of this pipeline program to facilitate diversification of the surgical field.