I wish to commend the ASA and the editorial team for the recent ASA Monitor newsletter on diversity.1 In 2007, Weeks et al. published the first study to look at annual incomes of physician anesthesiologists by gender from survey data in the 1990s.2 As important as this study was, the ASA had encouraged diversity long before with the acceptance of Doctors of Osteopathy (D.O.s) within its membership.
Osteopathic physicians “matched” approximately 16 percent of available slots within the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) accredited anesthesiology residency programs between 2009-18.3 This statistic would certainly confirm D.O.s have been and continue to be a minority within the physician anesthesia workforce.
As a D.O., it is of some note that the ASA Bylaws recognized D.O.s and offered membership starting at the latest in the mid-1980s (written communication with Karen Bieterman, MLIS, Director of the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, July...
