LAUSR

INTRODUCTION Only 9%–18% of individuals are lefthanded. Historically, lefthandedness has been considered undesirable with attempts to alter hand dominance in lefthanded individuals. Systematic biases in medicine favour righthanded individuals. This may be particularly pronounced in procedural specialties such as cardiology, where instruments and techniques are developed for righthanded individuals. While evidence suggests that lefthanded trainees face significant barriers in surgical training, to date, no assessment of cardiology trainees has been undertaken. As only a minority of cardiologists are lefthanded, training in lefthanded techniques and understanding of potential lefthanded difficulties may be limited. Our study aimed to: examine the prevalence of lefthandedness in UK cardiology trainees, assess perceived difficulty in training as a lefthanded trainee and determine whether hand dominance was associated with subspecialty selection.