About DE&I

Meet Your DE&I Task Force Members 

Radiology Health Equity Coalition

Ten major radiology organizations are collaborating in the formation of a Radiology Health Equity Coalition to positively impact health care equity in the radiology arena and beyond. While disparities and inequities in health care have been evident for many years, the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the disproportionate numbers of people of color and rural residents in the U.S. affected by barriers to care. The Coalition, convened by the American College of Radiology, includes the American Board of Radiology, American College of Radiology, American Medical Association Section Council on Radiology, Association of University Radiologists, National Medical Association Section on Radiology and Radiation Oncology, Radiological Society of North America, Society of Chairs of Academic Radiology Departments, Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging and Society of Interventional Radiologists with specialty and state Radiology organizations already joining the initiative. During the 2022 SNMMI Spring Board of Directors meeting, the SNMMI voted to join the Radiology Health Equity Coalition at the Mobilization, Executive Committee level. The SNMMI representative is Hyewon Hyun, MD, Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force. SNMMI is the only nuclear medicine organization to join at this level. This network of patient-focused radiology societies will collect, assess, and disseminate resources and best practices, advocate for and connect with patients and community members, and collaborate on programs and services to improve access and utilization of preventative and diagnostic imaging. The vision and missions of radiology societies focus on continually improving patient care. Medical imaging impacts most patients at some point in their care journey, and radiology professionals have the potential to be unifying change agents across an inequitable health care system. Radiologists can and should play a leadership role in ensuring high-quality imaging care for all people, in screening, diagnosis, treatment planning and monitoring, and image-guided and interventional radiology treatments. 

CMSS/ACGME Equity Matters 

SNMMI announced on August 4, 2021 its partnership with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in ACGME Equity Matters, a new initiative that introduces a framework for continuous learning and process improvement in diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism practices. The initiative aims to drive change within graduate medical education by increasing physician workforce diversity and building safe and inclusive learning environments, while promoting health equity by addressing racial disparities in health care and overall population health.

The ACGME Equity Matters framework includes 2 key components: (1) educational resources that will be available to all involved in GME; and (2) collaborative Learning Communities drawn from national stakeholder groups made up of GME Sponsoring Institutions and programs, including faculty members and individual residents/fellows, as well as specialty societies and other health care partners. The Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS), of which SNMMI is a member, and the Organization of Program Director Associations (OPDA) launched their participation in the program with the convening of 2 Learning Communities that will initiate an 18-mo engagement cycle. This partnership will support diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracist practices and policies across the full continuum from physician training to physicians in practice. Core teams from CMSS and OPDA members will include an elected leader to champion the initiative and senior executive leaders who will be accountable for implementing policy and practice changes.

The ACGME program will offer a phased curriculum to enable participants to move through progressively more complex concepts within 4 domains: acknowledgment, acceptance and accountability, action, and assessment and adaptation. Also included will be tools and skills training to drive implementation of innovative interventions, practices, policies, and data strategies. Forty-two organizations, including 31 CMSS Member Specialty Societies and 11 PDAs, will be participating in the inaugural 18-mo cohort of the learning communities.

CMSS Joint Capstone Project 

The CMSS Joint Capstone framework will follow two strategic priority areas that have been deemed critical for collective advancement of our medical societies’ diversity, equity, and inclusion strategic goals. These strategic focus areas include:

• Project 1: Identifying and collectively implementing cross-society strategies to increase the pool of diverse applicants to medical school (e.g., support for precollege and college research/shadowing programs), reduce barriers to entry (e.g., advocate for holistic review), and increase diversity of specialty training programs

• Project 2: Identifying and collectively implementing best practices by specialty societies to increase the visibility and availability of effective mentorship, coaching and sponsorship programs for those historically underrepresented in medicine.

These two projects will focus on identifying strategic opportunities for specialty societies to collectively intervene to support, advance, and advocate for those who are underrepresented in medicine at key points along the pathway of medical education and practice (pre-college, medical school, residency training, in practice, and in specialty societies).

Each Project will have an Advisory Committee, consisting of no more than 12 individuals and will NOT include representation from each organization. SNMMI nominated Marques Bradshaw, MD to serve on this elite Advisory Committee. We are pleased to report that Dr. Bradshaw was officially appointed to the Committee! 

The Advisory Committee’s responsibilities will include:  

• Providing high-level expertise and strategic insight throughout the project life cycle   
• Sharing contacts, resources, or recommendations of models for review to advance our objectives   
• Reviewing, monitoring, and assessing progress against project plan goals   
• Serving as a liaison to relevant external partners (as needed)   
• Augmenting promotion of Joint Capstone activities   
• Providing strategic links across workgroups