A scoping review of equality, diversity and inclusion reporting in early-phase surgical research

Researchers often conduct early studies when new types of surgery are being developed. They test the procedure’s safety and explore its promise to improve outcomes. Studies are designed with a small number of people with specific characteristics, such as only fit and healthy men and women.

This limit on participants might be necessary in most early studies. However, for findings to be relevant to a wider population, researchers need to consider people from other backgrounds, including age, gender, race and socioeconomic group. This diversity helps inform the next research phase and generates incremental evidence.

While there has been some work looking at how equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are handled in early drug research, little is known about how they are considered in early surgical research studies.

Project aims

We will review existing studies to find out whether EDI factors are being reported and considered in early-phase surgical research.

Our review will focus on whether participant characteristics such as sex, race, age and disability are mentioned. It will look at whether researchers consider how to widen studies beyond the early phase.

We will search major research databases like SCOPUS, PubMed and Web of Science. We will collect detailed information on how EDI is described and analysed in relevant studies.

What we hope to achieve

By understanding how well EDI factors are reported in surgical research, this project aims to help improve how people are included in studies.

Our findings will help improve how surgical studies are planned and reported in the future. Ultimately, the goal is to make early surgical studies well designed and appropriately inclusive. This will help definitive studies be safely inclusive and yield results relevant to the NHS and UK population.