President’s Letter from Bill Steinbach – PIDS Is a Big Tent Society

Every four years – plus or minus a year when a pandemic completely disrupts everything – the Summer Olympics puts up the biggest tent in the world and invites everyone. There are 206 nations participating in the games. By comparison, the United Nations is comprised of 193. That means practically every continent, peoples, nationality, language, and creed on Earth is represented. Regardless of who you are, there’s an athlete who looks like you and sounds like you.

I bring this up because we know that representation matters. Whether it is in athletic competition or pediatric infectious diseases, if you can see it, you can be it. As a society, PIDS seeks to broaden our tent and to be as representative as the patient populations we serve.

We are pursuing this goal through several exciting efforts, both in progress or soon to launch. The most mature of these is the Inclusion, Diversity, Access & Equity (IDA&E) Committee, which has grown from a task force to a full-fledged committee that will now have a liaison woven into every one of our other PIDS committees. The committee is tasked with helping our Society create a welcoming environment that recognizes the value of individuals with diverse backgrounds, talents, experiences and perspectives, and empowers them to fulfill their full potentials within the Society and in the community. 

Close behind that are our SUMMERS, meetID and IMG Early Career Development programs. These awards have enabled PIDS to reach a more diverse population and foster growth in their medical careers, from undergraduate to graduate/medical school students, residents, and fellows moving into junior faculty. In place for three, two and one years, respectively, PIDS has recognized 116 awardees from a variety of backgrounds and locations, with 70+ applications for meetID at IDWeek 2024 to consider in order to add up to 10 more to that awardee total. Additionally, PIDS partners with AAP for the Research in Academic Pediatrics Initiative on Diversity (RAPID) award to assist early career scholars who identify as underrepresented in medicine. We have recognized two scholars for this award thus far and the application for 2025 has recently opened.

Outside of awarding individuals, PIDS is now actively partnering with organizations dedicated to specific populations with the explicit goal of expanding our tent. Deb Palazzi (President-Elect) and Tanya Rogo (IDA&E Vice Chair), along with staff members, recently attended the National Medical Association Annual Convention and Scientific Assembly. PIDS joined as a sponsor of the pediatrics section while Deb and Tanya were panelists at the Organizational Pediatrics Forum, a group of national pediatric organizations focused on the question of how to collectively work to increase diversity among practicing pediatricians.

Plus, we’re exploring opportunities with the Latino Medical School Student Association (LMSA) and the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) to create webinars and seminars to reach these student populations. Another part of that outreach is ensuring these medical students are aware of programs like meetID. And as we prepare to head to Honolulu for PAS 2025, that list has expanded to include campuses with significant Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) student populations.

We should be proud of our Society’s efforts to increase our representation, though we have a long way to go to make the podium. Over the past two years, just nine self-identified Black or African American aspiring doctors applied for pediatric ID fellowship, only eight who identified as Latino or Hispanic, and zero as AAPI. We have our work cut out for us.

Teddy Roosevelt famously quipped, “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.” Any Olympic athlete can surely attest to this. And as a Society, we must endeavor to weather the effort, pain, and difficulty to achieve our goal, expand our tent, and become reflective of the children and families we serve.

We can envision it. Now, let’s become it.