Race and Ethnicity in Cardiac Surgery: A Missed Opportunity?

Patients’ race and/or ethnicity are increasingly being associated with differential surgical access and outcomes in cardiac surgery. However, deriving evidence-based conclusions that can inform surgical care has been difficult because of poor diversity in study populations and conflicting research methodology and findings. Using a fictional patient example, this review identifies areas of concern in research engagement, methodology, and analyses, as well as potential steps to improve race and ethnicity considerations in cardiac surgical research. A narrative literature review was performed using the PubMed/MEDLINE and Google Scholar databases, with a combination of cardiac surgery, race, ethnicity, and disparities keywords. Less than half of the published cardiac surgery randomized control trials report the race and/or ethnicity of research participants. Racial and/or ethnic minorities make up