Relationships, race/ethnicity, gender, age, and living kidney donation evaluation willingness.

Racial/ethnic and gender disparities in living donor kidney transplantation are large and persistent but incompletely explained. One previously unexplored potential contributor to these disparities is differential willingness to donate to recipients in specific relationships such as children, parents, and friends. We collected and analyzed data from an online sample featuring an experimental vignette in which respondents were asked to rate their willingness to donate to a randomly chosen member of their family or social network. Results show very large differences in respondents' willingness to donate to recipients with different relationships to them, favoring children, spouses/partners, siblings, and parents, and disfavoring friends, aunts/uncles, and coworkers. Evidence suggesting an interactive effect between relationship, respondent race/ethnicity, respondent or recipient gender, was limited to a few cases. At the p < 0.05 level, the parent-recipient gender interaction was statistically significant, favoring mothers over fathers, as was other/multiracial respondents' greater willingness to donate to friends compared to Whites. Additionally, other interactions were significant at the p < 0.10 level, such as Hispanics' and women's higher willingness to donate to parents compared to Whites and men respectively, women's lower willingness to donate to friends compared to men, and Blacks' greater willingness to donate to coworkers than Whites. We also examined differences by age and found that older respondents were less willing to donate to recipients other than their parents. Together these results suggest that differential willingness to donate by relationship group may be a moderately important factor in understanding racial/ethnic and gender disparities in living donor kidney transplantation.

The Determinants and Consequences of Living Donor Discussion Direction.

Introduction: Living donor discussions in which kidney transplant candidates discuss living kidney donation with their social network are an important step in the living donor kidney transplant process. No prior research has investigated whether who initiates discussion or influences evaluation agreement rates or how these processes may contribute to disparities. Research Questions: This study aimed to determine how common candidate- and potential-donor-initiated discussions were, at what rate each discussion type resulted in agreement to be evaluated for living donation, and what sociodemographic characteristics predicted living donor discussion and agreements. Design: A 2015 cross-sectional survey at a single, large Southeastern US transplant center measured kidney transplant candidates' social networks, including whether they had a donor discussion, who initiated it, and whether the discussion resulted in the donor evaluation agreement. Candidate-network member pairs' probability of having a candidate-initiated discussion, potential-living donor-initiated discussion, or no discussions were compared in multinomial logistic regression, and the probability of the discussion resulted in evaluation agreement was evaluated in multinomial logistic regression. Results: Sixty-six kidney transplant candidates reported on 1421 social network members. Most (80%) candidate/network-member pairs did not have a living donor discussion, with candidate-initiated discussions (11%) slightly more common than potential-donor-initiated discussions (10%). Evaluation agreement was much more common for potential-donor-initiated (72%) than for candidate-initiated discussions (39%). Potential-donor-initiated discussions were more common for White candidates (16%) than for Black candidates (7%). Conclusion: Potential-donor-initiated discussions resulted in evaluation agreement much more frequently than candidate-initiated discussions. This dynamic may contribute to racial living donation disparities.

Financial Hardship and Age-Related Decrements in Kidney Function among Black and White Adults in the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Study.

OBJECTIVES: This analysis examined if financial hardship was associated with age-related decrements in kidney function using a material-psychosocial-behavioral framework. We also tested if this association was mediated by comorbidity of cardiometabolic risk factors (obesity, elevated blood pressure, and insulin resistance). METHODS: Data from 1,361 Non-Hispanic (NH) Black and white adults (ages 26-94; NH Black = 258) were obtained from the Wave 3 and Refresher phases of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) project. Kidney function was based on serum creatinine-based estimated glomerular filtration rate (CKD-EPI formula without race adjustment). Financial hardship was evaluated in three domains: material (income to poverty line ratio, health insurance coverage, and public/government financial assistance), psychological (perceived financial status, control over financial status, and perceived financial strains), and behavioral responses (financial adjustment/coping such as sold possessions and cutting back on spending). RESULTS: More severe financial hardship (overall score and in each domain) was associated with age-related decrements in eGFR, even after adjusting for sociodemographic, education, and health-related covariates. The association between financial hardship and age-related decrements in eGFR was conditional on sex but not race. Finally, cardiometabolic risk factors mediated the association between financial hardship and age-related decrements in eGFR. CONCLUSIONS: These findings affirm the negative effects of financial hardship on age-related decrements in renal clearance. In addition to incorporating traditionally used indicators of SES, such as education and income, future research on social hallmarks of aging should also consider the role of financial hardship on the aging process and age-related diseases.

Social network interventions to reduce race disparities in living kidney donation: Design and rationale of the friends and family of kidney transplant patients study (FFKTPS).

INTRODUCTION: Racial/ethnic disparities in living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) are a persistent challenge. Although nearly all directed donations are from members of patients' social networks, little is known about which social network members take steps toward living kidney donation, which do not, and what mechanisms contribute to racial/ethnic LDKT disparities. METHODS: We describe the design and rationale of the Friends and Family of Kidney Transplant Patients Study, a factorial experimental fielding two interventions designed to promote LKD discussions. Participants are kidney transplant candidates at two centers who are interviewed and delivered an intervention by trained center research coordinators. The search intervention advises patients on which social network members are most likely to be LKD contraindication-free; the script intervention advises patients on how to initiate effective LKD discussions. Participants are randomized into four conditions: no intervention, search only, script only, or both search and script. Patients also complete a survey and optionally provide social network member contact information so they can be surveyed directly. This study will seek to enroll 200 transplant candidates. The primary outcome is LDKT receipt. Secondary outcomes include live donor screening and medical evaluations and outcomes. Tertiary outcomes include LDKT self-efficacy, concerns, knowledge, and willingness, measured before and after the interventions. CONCLUSION: This study will assess the effectiveness of two interventions to promote LKD and ameliorate Black-White disparities. It will also collect unprecedented information on transplant candidates' social network members, enabling future work to address network member structural barriers to LKD.

The ties that transplant: The social capital determinants of the living kidney donor relationship distribution.

The network perspective on social capital decomposes it into ego's network size, alters' relevant resources, and social factors moderating access to alters' resources, but rarely examines how it is distributed across relationship types. Using this approach, I investigate the situationally-relevant social capital relationship distribution and its association with health-related social support, with an application to the living kidney donor relationship distribution. Analyzing an original survey of transplant candidates (N = 72) and their reports on their family and friends (N = 1548), I compare the tie count, donation-relevant biomedical resource, and tie strength relationship distributions to administrative data on the national distribution of living kidney donor relationships. I find that the tie strength relationship distribution matches the completed living kidney donor relationship distribution far better than the tie count and donation-relevant biomedical resource relationship distributions. These conclusions are upheld in race- and gender-stratified analyses and are robust across alternative approaches.

Dialysis Patients' Social Networks and Living Donation Offers.

Rationale & Objective: Most living kidney donors are members of a hemodialysis patient's social network. Network members are divided into core members, those strongly connected to the patient and other members; and peripheral members, those weakly connected to the patient and other members. We identify how many hemodialysis patients' network members offered to become kidney donors, whether these offers were from core or peripheral network members, and whose offers the patients accepted. Study Design: A cross-sectional interviewer-administered hemodialysis patient social network survey. Setting & Participants: Prevalent hemodialysis patients in 2 facilities. Predictors: Network size and constraint, a donation from a peripheral network member. Outcomes: Number of living donor offers, accepting an offer. Analytical Approach: We performed egocentric network analyses for all participants. Poisson regression models evaluated associations between network measures and number of offers. Logistic regression models determined the associations between network factors and accepting a donation offer. Results: The mean age of the 106 participants was 60 years. Forty-five percent were female, and 75% self-identified as Black. Fifty-two percent of participants received at least one living donor offer (range 1-6); 42% of the offers were from peripheral members. Participants with larger networks received more offers (incident rate ratio [IRR], 1.26; 95% CI, 1.12-1.42; P = 0.001), including networks with more peripheral members (constraint, IRR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.96-0.98; P < 0.001). Participants who received a peripheral member offer had 3.6 times greater odds of accepting an offer (OR, 3.56; 95% CI, 1.15-10.8; P = 0.02) than those who did not receive a peripheral member offer. Limitations: A small sample of only hemodialysis patients. Conclusions: Most participants received at least one living donor offer, often from peripheral network members. Future living donor interventions should focus on both core and peripheral network members.

Testing the Differential Access Hypothesis That Black Kidney Transplant Candidates Perceive Social Network Access to Fewer Potential Living Donors Than White Candidates.

INTRODUCTION: Many studies of Black-White disparities in living donor kidney transplantation hypothesize that they were partially due to Black-White differences in candidate social network access to healthy, willing donors. This differential access hypothesis has not been tested using directly measured social network data. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: Do black kidney transplant candidates have perceived lower social network access to health and/or willing living donors than white candidates? DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey that measured the social network members was collected in 2015. Black-White differences in patient counts of perceived healthy and/or willing potential donors in social networks, and individual network members' probability of being perceived healthy and/or willing, were compared using logistic and negative binomial regression models. RESULTS: The survey included 66 kidney transplant candidates reporting on 1474 social network members at a large Southeastern US transplant center in 2015. Black and White patients had similar access to perceived healthy, likely potential donors (86% vs 87% had 1 or more, P = .92; 5.91 vs 4.13 mean counts, P = .20) and perceived healthy, agreed potential donors (56% vs 48%, P = .54; 1.77 vs 1.74, P = .97). Black patients' network members were individually more likely to be perceived healthy and likely potential donors (26% vs 21%, P = .04), and White patients' network members were more likely to have agreed (13% vs 9%, P = .03), but these differences were statistically insignificant in demographically adjusted models. CONCLUSION: Black and White transplant candidates perceived access to similar numbers of potential donors in their social networks. This result does not support the differential access hypothesis.

Longitudinal electrocardiographic assessment in Brugada syndrome.

Background: The type 1 electrocardiographic (ECG) pattern diagnostic of Brugada syndrome (BrS) can be dynamic. Limited studies have rigorously evaluated the temporal stability of the Brugada ECG pattern. Objective: We sought to evaluate fluctuations of the Brugada pattern in serial resting ECGs from BrS patients managed within a large health care system. Methods: In our cohort of BrS patients with at least 2 standard, resting ECGs recorded on separate clinical encounters, we evaluated serial changes in the Brugada pattern and categorized patients into 1 of 3 groups: dynamic was defined as the presence of both type 1 and non-type 1 patterns in available ECGs; the provoked-only group was defined as having a non-type 1 Brugada pattern across resting ECGs; and the persistent group was defined as having a type 1 pattern on all ECGs. We also evaluated the clinical risk in this cohort according to the Shanghai risk score. Results: In 72 patients with BrS (mean age 46 ± 15 years, 69% male), 828 standard, resting ECGs were recorded over a median duration of 30.2 (interquartile range 6.3-68.1) months. The dynamic group comprised 50 (69% of the cohort) patients, the provoked-only group consisted of 17 patients (24% of the cohort), and the persistent group included 5 patients. No significant differences were detected in the total number of ECGs evaluated during the follow-up period between any of the groups. Only sinus node dysfunction and a prior cardiac arrest were associated with the persistent type 1 group. The majority of patients had a low annualized risk of lethal arrhythmic events. Conclusion: Most BrS patients have a dynamic Brugada pattern noted on longitudinal, resting ECGs. Expert consensus statements should provide clarity on the frequency of obtaining resting ECGs in patients suspected of having BrS during follow-up.

Characterization of the right ventricular substrate participating in postinfarction ventricular tachycardia.

BACKGROUND: The right ventricle (RV) is uncommonly implicated in postinfarction ventricular tachycardia (VT). The prevalence and features of the RV substrate participating in postinfarction VT are undefined. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to characterize critical right ventricular substrate (CRVS) involvement in patients with postinfarction VT. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 1279 patients with postinfarction VT undergoing catheter ablation at our center from January 2000 through May 2020. Cases with CRVS defined by conclusive demonstration of participation in VT with activation, entrainment, and/or pacemapping during sinus rhythm were identified. RESULTS: CRVS was identified in 27 of 1279 patients (2.1%): age 65 ± 13 years, 96% male, median left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction 25%, and 93% with left bundle branch block (LBBB) morphology VT. CRVS was identified by RV activation and/or entrainment mapping (n = 19) or by the presence of low-voltage abnormal electrograms with excellent pacemap for the targeted VT and noninducibility after ablation (n = 8). VT termination during RV ablation occurred in 15 patients. After median follow-up of 20 months (interquartile range 9-53 months) and median of 2 procedures (interquartile range 1-3), 22 of 27 patients (80%) had no VT recurrence and 11 (41%) died. CONCLUSION: The RV contains critical substrate elements of postinfarction VT in at least 2.1% of cases. RV mapping should be considered in cases in which LV mapping fails to demonstrate adequate targets, particularly in patients with LBBB morphology VT.

Racial/ethnic and prior willingness disparities in potential living kidney donors' self-assessed responses to advancing American kidney health regulation.

BACKGROUND: Racial/ethnic disparities in living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) are large, and rates of LDKT may be limited by indirect costs of living donation. A 2019 Executive Order- Advancing American Kidney Health (AAKH)- sought to remove indirect costs through an expanded reimbursement program. We examine how potential living kidney donors in the U.S. believe regulation stemming from the AAKH initiative will impact their living donor evaluation likelihood, how these beliefs vary by minority race/ethnicity and prior willingness to be evaluated, and how differences are explained by ability to benefit or knowledge and attitudes. METHODS: Data from a 2019 online survey (Families of Renal Patients Survey) were used. Respondents are U.S. adult (> 18 years) members of the Qualtrics Survey Panel who reported having relatives with weak or failing kidneys (N = 590). Respondents' likelihood to be evaluated for living kidney donation are measured by self-report. Prior willingness is measured by past donation-related actions and current attitudes. Ability to benefit is measured by self-reported labor force participation and financial strain. Transplant knowledge is measured by self-report and a knowledge test, and transplant-related attitudes are measured by self-report. Average marginal effects of minority race/ethnicity and prior willingness for response to each provision in fully-adjusted models were estimated. Formal tests of mediation were conducted using the Karlson, Holm, and Breen (KHB) mediation model. Stata/MP 14.2 was used to conduct all analyses. RESULTS: Majorities of all groups report favorable responses to the provisions stipulated in AAKH regulation. Responses to provisions are significantly associated with race/ethnicity and prior willingness, with racial/ethnic minorities and those not previously willing to be evaluated less likely to report favorable responses to these provisions. Prior willingness differences are partially explained by group differences in ability to benefit and transplant-related knowledge and attitudes, but racial/ethnic differences largely are not. CONCLUSIONS: Regulation stemming from the AAKH initiative is likely to effectively promote LDKT, but may also exacerbate racial/ethnic disparities. Therefore, the regulation may need to be supplemented by efforts to address non-financial obstacles to LDKT in racial/ethnic minority communities in order to ensure equitable increases in LDKT rates and living donor support.

Life course pathways from parental education to age-related decrements in kidney function among Black and white American adults.

OBJECTIVE: Using cross-sectional data on Black and white adults, this analysis examined whether age-related decrements in kidney function across adulthood were associated with parental education, and whether the association was differentially influenced by race. Further, this study assessed racial differences in life course pathways from parental education to age-related decrements in kidney function, through current SES and health-related risk factors. METHOD: Data from the main survey and the Biomarker Project of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Wave 2 and Refresher samples were combined, resulting in 1861 adults (54.5% female; age 25-84, Mage = 53.37) who self-identified as non-Hispanic Black (n = 326) and non-Hispanic white (n = 1535). Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was based on serum creatinine, calculated using the CKD-EPI formula. Adults SES was based on education, income, and financial strains. Health-related risk factors included obesity, elevated blood pressure (BP), and insulin resistance. Hypotheses were tested by utilizing multiple linear regression and regression-based moderated mediation analysis. RESULTS: Lower parental education was associated with steeper age-related decrements in eGFR (B = 0.38, SE = 0.15, p = .013, 95%CI = 0.08, 0.68), due to higher eGFR among younger participants and lower eGFR among older participants. In addition, age-related decrements in kidney function were steeper among Black relative to white adults (B = 0.41, SE = 0.13, p < .01, 95%CI = 0.16, 0.66), driven by higher proportion of younger Black adults that met criterion for renal hyperfiltration. Furthermore, parental education and race were associated with age-related decrements in kidney function in an additive rather than interactive way. There were some racial differences in the life course pathways from parental education to age-related differences in eGFR, glucoregulation, and hypertension. Among Black adults, lower parental education was associated with elevated eGFR among younger participants through insulin resistance. Among white adults, lower parental education was linked to higher eGFR among younger adults and lower eGFR among older adults, and the association was mediated by current SES, elevated BP, and insulin resistance. DISCUSSION: Early life SES can have a long-lasting influence on the preclinical renal senescence that is associated with the normal biology of aging for both Black and white adults.

Tracking the reach of COVID-19 kin loss with a bereavement multiplier applied to the United States.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a large increase in mortality in the United States and around the world, leaving many grieving the sudden loss of family members. We created an indicator-the COVID-19 bereavement multiplier-that estimates the average number of individuals who will experience the death of a close relative (defined as a grandparent, parent, sibling, spouse, or child) for each COVID-19 death. Using demographic microsimulation-based estimates of kinship networks in the United States, the clear age gradient in COVID-19 mortality seen across contexts, and several hypothetical infection prevalence scenarios, we estimate COVID-19 bereavement multipliers for White and Black individuals in the United States. Our analysis shows that for every COVID-19 death, approximately nine surviving Americans will lose a grandparent, parent, sibling, spouse, or child. These estimates imply, for example, that if 190,000 Americans die from COVID-19, as some models project, then ∼1.7 million will experience the death of a close relative. We demonstrate that our estimates of the bereavement multiplier are stable across epidemiological realities, including infection scenarios, total number of deaths, and the distribution of deaths, which means researchers can estimate the bereavement burden over the course of the epidemic in lockstep with rising death tolls. In addition, we provide estimates of bereavement multipliers by age group, types of kin loss, and race to illuminate prospective disparities. The bereavement multiplier is a useful indicator for tracking COVID-19's multiplicative impact as it reverberates across American families and can be tailored to other causes of death.

Childhood socioeconomic status, comorbidity of chronic kidney disease risk factors, and kidney function among adults in the midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study.

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of empirical effort that systematically investigates the clustering of comorbidity among known risk factors (obesity, hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and elevated inflammation) of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and how different types of comorbidity may link differently to kidney function among healthy adult samples. This study modeled the clustering of comorbidity among risk factors, examined the association between the clustering of risk factors and kidney function, and tested whether the clustering of risk factors was associated with childhood SES. METHODS: The data were from 2118 participants (ages 25-84) in the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Study. Risk factors included obesity, elevated blood pressure (BP), high total cholesterol levels, poor glucose control, and increased inflammatory activity. Glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was estimated from serum creatinine, calculated with the CKD-EPI formula. The clustering of comorbidity among risk factors and its association with kidney function and childhood SES were examined using latent class analysis (LCA). RESULTS: A five-class model was optimal: (1) Low Risk (class size = 36.40%; low probability of all risk factors), (2) Obese (16.42%; high probability of large BMI and abdominally obese), (3) Obese and Elevated BP (13.37%; high probability of being obese and having elevated BP), (4) Non-Obese but Elevated BP (14.95%; high probability of having elevated BP, hypercholesterolemia, and elevated inflammation), and (5) High Risk (18.86%; high probability for all risk factors). Obesity was associated with kidney hyperfiltration, while comorbidity between obesity and hypertension was linked to compromised kidney filtration. As expected, the High Risk class showed the highest probability of having eGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 (P = .12; 95%CI = .09-.17). Finally, higher childhood SES was associated with reduced probability of being in the High Risk rather than Low Risk class (ß = - 0.20, SE = 0.07, OR [95%CI] = 0.82 [0.71-0.95]). CONCLUSION: These results highlight the importance of considering the impact of childhood SES on risk factors known to be associated with CKD.

Linked Lives and Childhood Experience of Family Death on Educational Attainment.

Sociological theory and research suggest that experiencing family members' deaths during childhood and adolescence is an important event subject to significant disparities. Previous research links immediate family members' deaths to poor life outcomes, but it considers a limited set of family members and has not tested the association of family member death with educational attainment. This study estimates the rates and educational impacts of experiencing the deaths of immediate (siblings, parents) and extended family members (aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents) during childhood and adolescence for Black and White Americans. We find that family death is associated with educational attainment, but the associations differ by family member type and gender, and child's race. Experiences of family death are unequally distributed by race and demonstrate complex associations with educational attainment. This research broadens life course and family systems theory by incorporating childhood family experiences of death on adult educational attainment and stratification.

Job Characteristics, Job Preferences, and Physical and Mental Health in Later Life.

Existing research linking SES with work primarily focuses on the precursors (educational attainment) and outcomes (income) of work, rather than asking how diverse facets of work influence health. Using four waves of data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, we evaluate whether multiple measures of respondent job characteristics, respondent preferences for those characteristics, and their interaction substantially improve the fit of sociological models of men's and women's physical and mental health at midlife and old age compared to traditional models using educational attainment, parental SES, and income. We find that non-wage job characteristics predict men's and women's physical and mental health over the lifecourse, although we find little evidence that the degree to which one's job accords with one's job preferences matters for health. These findings expand what we know about how work matters for health, demonstrating how the manner and condition under which one works has lasting impacts on wellbeing.

Beyond Household Walls: The Spatial Structure of American Extended Kinship Networks.

How far do Americans live from their close and extended kin? The answer is likely to structure the types of social, instrumental, and financial support that they are able to provide to one another. Based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, kin pairs vary widely in odds of household co-residence, co-residence in the same administrative units, and inter-tract distances if they do not live in the same census tract. Multivariate regression tests show that family structure, educational attainment, and age are closely associated with kin proximity. Fixed effects models demonstrate that fam ily formation shapes spatial relations between kin.

The contribution of three dimensions of allostatic load to racial/ethnic disparities in poor/fair self-rated health.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluates whether different dimensions of physiological dysregulation, modeled individually rather than additively mediate racial/ethnic disparities in self-reported health. METHODS: Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005-2010) and the Karlson, Hold, and Breen (KHB) mediation model, this paper explores what operationalization of biomarker data most strongly mediate racial/ethnic disparities in poor/fair self-rated health (SRH) among adults in the United States, net of demographic, socioeconomic, behavioral, and medication controls. RESULTS: Non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics had significantly higher odds of reporting poor/fair self-rated health in comparison to non-Hispanic whites. Operationalizations of allostatic load that disaggregate three major dimensions of physiological dysregulation mediate racial/ethnic disparities strongly between non-Hispanic blacks and non-Hispanic whites, but not between Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites. Disaggregating these dimensions explains racial/ethnic disparities in poor/fair SRH better than the continuous score. Analyses on sex-specific disparities indicate differences in how individual dimensions of allostatic load contribute to racial/ethnic disparities in poor/fair SRH differently. All individual dimensions are strong determinants of poor/fair SRH for males. In contrast, for females, the only dimension that is significantly associated with poor/fair SRH is inflammation. For the analytic sample, additive biomarker scores fit the data as well or better than other approaches, suggesting that this approach is most appropriate for explaining individual differences. However, in sex-specific analyses, the interactive approach models fit the data best for men and women. CONCLUSIONS: Future researchers seeking to explain racial/ethnic disparities in full or sex-stratified samples should consider disaggregating allostatic load by dimension.

What Can Sociogenomics Learn from Social By Nature? A review of social by nature, by Catherine Bliss.

Social by Nature, the recent book by Catherine Bliss on the development and state of the field of sociogenomics, is far from perfect. Yet, this flawed book levies a mixture of erroneous and compelling questions about the state of the field of sociogenomics, many of which we as a field would benefit from considering: How should we bring the environment back in the post-GWAS era? How do the publication and funding incentives of our field influence the evolution of our research agenda? What role should social scientific theory play in motivating our research and interpreting our findings? How can we promote greater diversity in our research community and subjects? And how can we work to better control media and popular narratives of our research? The authors do not attempt to answer all of these questions definitively, but do argue that we as a field must grapple with them seriously to ensure that our ideals and reality as a field are more congruent.