795 Differences in NIH funding in maternal fetal medicine by gender and rank

Abstract

The objective of this study is to evaluate the current R01 Equivalent NIH-funded studies holding a "Maternal Fetal Medicine" tag. The goal is to identify the distribution of their principal investigators by profession, gender and rank. This is a cross sectional study that examines the current studies found on the National Institute of Health (NIH) RePORTER website https://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm. The projects are examined in September 2020 and include all “Active Projects.” The keyword for the search used is "Maternal Fetal Medicine" and projects included hold an "R01 Equivalent" Activity code. The principal investigators (PIs) of found studies are examined and classified by gender, profession (physician vs non-physician), academic rank (Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor), and whether the author is a maternal fetal medicine (MFM) specialist. Through the above mentioned search criteria, 50 studies were identified. 31 (62%) of projects had women PIs whereas 19 (38%) have men PIs. 26 (52%) of studies had PIs who were physicians while 24 (48%) had PIs who were not physicians. Amongst projects with women PIs, 17 (55%) were physicians, and 14 (45%) were not physicians. On the other hand, amongst projects with men PIs, 9 (47%) were physicians, and 10 (53%) were not physicians. Amongst projects with women PIs, 18 (58%) held a professor rank, 7 (23%) held an associate professor rank, and 5 (16%) held an assistant professor rank. On the other hand, amongst projects with men PIs, 14 (74%) held a professor rank, 5 (26%) held an associate professor rank, and none held an assistant professor rank. Only 8 (16%) PIs were identified as maternal fetal medicine specialists and 7 (88%) of MFM PIs were women. Among the active NIH projects with the “Maternal Fetal Medicine” keyword tag , principal investigators were more likely to be women than men. However, men principal investigators were more likely to hold higher academic ranks than their women counterparts. In addition, the minority of principal investigators were maternal fetal specialists.View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload Hi-res image Download (PPT)