AAOS Awards 2024 DEI Grants

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) announced 17 recipients of the 2024 AAOS IDEA Grant Program®, which aims to reduce longstanding disparities in orthopedics, with $300,000 in grants in its second year. The recipients were selected based on the merits of their initiatives to eliminate bias and discrimination or advance diversity, equity and/or inclusion (DEI) within the orthopedic specialty.

The AAOS IDEA Grant Program funds educational, community or outreach projects or programs that will create opportunities for a diverse pipeline of individuals who choose to go into orthopedics as a profession; foster DEI initiatives for community-based or academic orthopedic surgeons; and expand the availability of AAOS educational and networking opportunities to diverse students and practicing orthopedic surgeons.

“The response to the IDEA Grant Program has been overwhelming and underscores the urgent demand for funding to bolster initiatives that help bridge the diversity, equity and access gap that has persisted in orthopedics for decades,” said AAOS Diversity Advisory Board Chair Anthony E. Johnson, MD, FAAOS.

Some of the 2024 awardees include recipients from Howard University Orthopaedics, the only orthopedic program in the nation directly associated with a historically black university; PrideOrtho, a community of proactive LGBTQ+ individuals and their allies in orthopedics; and Wake Forest School of Medicine, which is seeking to broaden the national exposure and reputation of individuals from groups underrepresented in medicine.

To learn more about the 2024 grant recipients please click here. OSM