Is Sex Associated With Differences in Academic Productivity Among Gastroenterologists at U.S. Training Programs?: ACG Auxiliary Award (Trainee): Presidential Poster Award

Abstract

Introduction: Women have historically been underrepresented in gastroenterology (GI). There have been few to no analyses of female representation within the academic ranks in GI, much less a comparison of academic productivity between men and women in the field. Methods: We did a Google search of each ACGME-accredited program to identify faculty members, trainees, and program directors (PDs) as of December 2017. We found PDs and program sizes on the ACGME site. We used Scopus to find each person's h-index and publications, and confirmed their year of certification on the ABIM website. We used Poisson regression models to plot mean h-index and total publications as well as predicted ranges for each based on categorical variable. All analyses were conducted in R version 3.4.2 (R Core Team 2017, Vienna, Austria). Results: We gathered information on 3673 people including 164 PDs, 2499 non-PD faculty, and 1010 trainees (Table 1). Women comprised 22% (37/164) of PDs, 27% (675/2499) of non-PD faculty, and 34% (341/1010) of all trainees. They make up under 14% (71/520) of full professors and less than 17% (24/143) of GI chairs or chiefs. Around one-fifth (37/174) of MD-PhDs in GI are women, and while they comprise about half of subspecialists in hepatology, IBD, oncology, and motility, they barely make up over 10% (34/280) of advanced endoscopists. While mean h-indices (16.4 vs. 8.9) and publications (52.1 vs. 20.7) are higher for men overall (Table 2), the predicted ranges in metrics have largely closed in recent years as more women have entered the field (Figure). Male MD-PhDs have higher productivity, likely due to their 4:1 majority, but the metrics are mostly comparable when isolating for academic ranking (Table 2). The differences are more pronounced when comparing geography and subspecialties (Table 2). Conclusion: Women remain underrepresented at all levels in GI, though this has somewhat improved among current trainees. The imbalance is most pronounced among PDs, professors, chairs or chiefs, MD-PhDs, as well as in advanced endoscopy. This may reflect lack of mentorship for women to rise to these positions. Moreover, academic productivity still appears weighted toward men when looking at geography and subspecialty, but this is most likely due to men having had more time and opportunities to generate GI research. Indeed, the differences decrease when looking at academic ranking and younger practitioners. More effort must be undertaken to recruit women into GI and into more senior positions.1089_A Figure 1. Baseline Characteristics based on Sex1089_B Figure 2. Overall Metrics Comparison based on Sex1089_C Figure 3. Poisson Regression Model for h-index and Sex over Time