Statement paper on diversity for the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM)

Introduction Diversity has become a key-strategic element of success in various political and economic fields. The European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) decided to make diversity a key strategic priority for the future and appointed a Task-Force on this topic. Methods In a consensus process, three Working-Groups, nominated by Task-Force members, developed statements on strategic future topics. In addition, diversity-related data available from the membership database have been analyzed and reported in aggregated form. Results The Task-Force decided to nominate working groups on (1) “sex, gender identity and sexual orientation”, (2) “ethnicity, culture and socio-economic status”, and (3) “multiprofessionalism”. These are the first prioritized topics for the near future. The first diversity-report shows targetable items in all three domains. Conclusion The diversity Task-Force defined actionable items for a one- and three-year plan that are especially aiming at the identification of potential gaps and an implementation of concrete projects for members of the ESICM. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00134-019-05606-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.