Keywords
plastic surgery, reconstruction, barriers to accessibility, socioeconomic status, geography, cultural competency
Disciplines
Life Sciences
Mentor
Professor Jane Toot
Abstract
This essay attempts to explore accessibility to reconstructive plastic surgery in the United States. Information was compiled from over 40 scholarly articles, as well as personal interviews with reconstructive plastic surgeons. The barriers to access addressed in this essay include cost, co-morbidity, physician bias, geography, and education. Many of the issues discussed are cyclic in nature and thus result in a self-perpetuating multifactorial problem that cannot be addressed with one simple solution. This essay describes possible reasons for why that might be, and ways we can overcome these issues so as to provide better accessibility to reconstructive plastic surgery for every person in the United States.
ScholarWorks Citation
Parker, Naomi, "Accessibility to Reconstructive Plastic Surgery in the United States" (2018). Honors Projects. 709.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/honorsprojects/709
