The British Association for the Study of the Liver commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusivity

The British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL) is an organisation that represents health-care professionals and scientists working in the field of liver disease. Like our patients, we, liver specialists, come from diverse backgrounds. We recognise that, for our organisation to advance and optimise the care of our patients and members, this diversity should be embraced and celebrated. In August, 2021, the then President of BASL, Guruprasad Aithal—the first president from a minoritised ethnic background—requested the formation of a working party to focus on equality, diversity, and inclusivity. The BASL equality, diversity, and inclusivity working party, chaired by Jude A Oben, has composed a mission statement and a 5-year action plan to facilitate the inclusivity of liver specialists within the association, regardless of their identity. BASL makes a firm commitment to create an environment in which all its existing and potential members have a sense of belonging irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity, race, disability, religion, sexual orientation, profession, specialty, training, or place of work. We aim to use our diversity to enhance the activities of BASL by creating opportunities for all members to contribute. We will ensure that the leadership of BASL represents diverse membership, will advocate for the care of our diverse patients, and will strive to reduce inequality in all our activities. The BASL equality, diversity, and inclusivity working party has established five key areas to work on during the next 5-year period. First, BASL membership engagement. We aim to actively invite and extend membership to potential members from diverse backgrounds who can also advise BASL executives on equality, diversity, and inclusivity. We will also contribute to planning the BASL annual conference to ensure gender and ethnicity parity among speakers, moderators, and programme chairs. Second, data collection. We will collect protected-characteristic data on all our members, with consent, and track changes in these 5 years. Information on characteristics, such as ethnicity, gender, religion, and age, will be used to inform, define, and refine our equality, diversity, and inclusivity policy. As stated by the UK Office for National Statistics, which arranges the national census in the UK every 10 years (most recently in 2021), the current ethnic groups of Asian or Asian British (ie, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese, or any other Asian background); Black, Black British, Caribbean, or African (ie, Caribbean; African; or any other Black, Black British, or Caribbean background); mixed or multiple ethnic groups (ie, White and Black Caribbean, White and Black African, White and Asian, or any other mixed or multiple ethnic background); White (ie, English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, or British; Irish; Gypsy or Irish Traveller; Roma; or any other White background); and other ethnic group (ie, Arab or any other ethnic group)1UK Office for National StatisticsList of ethnic groups 2021.https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/style-guide/ethnic-groupsDate: 2021Date accessed: July 28, 2023Google Scholar do not represent how all people identify. Therefore, people will be encouraged in any BASL survey to define their ethnicity in their own words if they do not identify with any group in this list. Data on the diversity of members who applied to committees and were successfully appointed will also be collected. Third, reporting. We will share the results of these collected data annually through anonymised reports. This reporting will allow us to review and evidence our policy, assess our strategy, and implement strategy changes, as required. Fourth, promoting and supporting inclusivity. We will invite all BASL members to join committees, working parties, and special interest groups and ensure that the selection criteria for these groups are solely based on merit. An inclusivity statement encouraging applications from eligible members will be included in all of our advertisements. We will also disseminate our activity to BASL members and ask for feedback. Educational programmes, projects, and events on equality, diversity, and inclusivity will be endorsed and affiliations with partners who support this cause will be established. We will also nominate chairpeople for the equality, diversity, and inclusivity working party from within the membership, create a mentorship scheme for people of diverse backgrounds, and engage the next generation of liver specialists in developing future policies and strategies. BASL will advocate for the anonymisation of abstracts, research manuscripts, and grant applications during the peer-review process to reduce gender, racial, and other biases and improve equality and inclusivity in our research community. Finally, advocating for inclusivity in the wider health-care community. We will share our policies with relevant agencies and encourage liver services to reflect the needs of local populations in all their diversity. We will promote and support initiatives to reduce disparities in liver services across the UK. We will also support other organisations in promoting and developing equality, diversity, and inclusivity. Furthermore, we will encourage all organisations that we partner with, as well as our funders, to share with us their equality, diversity, and inclusivity policies and challenge those that are unable to provide them. The BASL equality, diversity, and inclusivity working party has made substantial progress since its inception by implementing several action points. It provided feedback to its members regarding progress in the first year at BASL's annual meeting in September, 2022. In August, 2021, we conducted a brief survey among existing BASL members, who were also encouraged to update their profiles by completing the equality, diversity, and inclusivity data fields on their online membership profile. The captured data were anonymised and presented at the general BASL meeting on Sept 21, 2022, providing insight into the diversity of BASL members (appendix). On Jan 17, 2022, we updated our privacy and data collection policies to be compliant with UK law and to enable membership data fields to incorporate equality, diversity, and inclusivity data. We started collecting equality, diversity, and inclusivity data specifically on new members on Sept 21, 2023. In March, 2023, a survey was also sent to gastroenterology trainees across the UK to evaluate equality, diversity and inclusivity in research opportunities. Furthermore, we created an anonymous reporting system that is accessible through the member page on the BASL website to report and raise concerns regarding discriminatory events. An inclusivity statement, including our strategy and policy, has been added to the BASL website and was presented at the BASL annual meeting in September, 2022. We will ensure that all BASL roles have an equality, diversity, and inclusivity statement incorporated into the role description and advertisements. The equality, diversity, and inclusivity chairperson will have an advisory role on the annual conference programme committee. An online conference, BASL X-tra,2British Society of GastroenterologyBASL X-tra on-line educational conference.https://www.bsg.org.uk/events/basl-x-tra-on-line-educational-conference/Date: 2023Date accessed: July 28, 2023Google Scholar which was delivered by BASL between April 25 and April 27, 2023, constituted a speaker list from multiprofessional teams and invited high-specialty trainees as co-chairs and consultants in early stages of their career to contribute as part of our inclusivity commitment. We seek to collaborate and share our policy and strategy with the British Society of Gastroenterology and the UK Liver Alliance to try to reduce inequality in access to liver services and to promote liver services being inclusive of everyone. All abstracts that were submitted for presentation, research awards, and travel bursaries at the annual meetings in September, 2022, and September, 2023, were anonymised. The chair of the equality, diversity, and inclusivity working party is included on the judging panel. Disparities in equality, diversity, and inclusivity in medicine remain. A report from the UK General Medical Council found that pass rates of specialty examinations were lower for graduates of Black or Black British heritage and disabled graduates, compared with graduates of other races or non-disabled graduates.3UK General Medical CouncilTackling disadvantage in medical education.https://www.gmc-uk.org/-/media/documents/96887270_tackling-disadvantage-in-medical-education-020323.pdfDate: 2023Date accessed: July 28, 2023Google Scholar Across the UK, professional societies will have to modernise and move away from their historical backgrounds as private clubs with the exclusion of some people or groups to truly represent the diversity of the gastroenterology profession and the patients we serve. Currently, an increasing number of National Health Service staff in the UK are coming from international backgrounds.4UK ParliamentNHS staff from overseas: statistics.https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7783/Date: 2022Date accessed: July 28, 2023Google Scholar Professional societies are integral to providing education and setting standards, but are equally as important for informal networking, mentoring, and career development opportunities. BASL should be an open and welcoming organisation and all members should have a place with us. We now made this position statement and our internal commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusivity a public pledge. GA has been an adviser to GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Benevolent AI Bio, Puretech, Merck Healthcare, Servier, Clinpace, Amryth, NuCana, DNAi, and Albireo. All other authors declare no competing interests. Download .pdf (.24 MB) Help with pdf files Supplementary appendix