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Background: Among U.S. medical school deans, there is a wide gender gap, most prominent at the highest levels. We aimed to discover how well women physicians were represented within the pool of women deans compared with the pool of men deans. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on 149 allopathic medical schools in the United States. For each school, information was collected on deans' names, titles, genders, and degree(s). Chi-square analyses were performed to determine association between gender and dean ranks. Results: Of the 2559 deans included from 149 medical schools, 1649 (64.4%) were physicians, and of these, women physicians accounted for 634 (38.4%), a significant under-representation (p < 0.00001). In comparison, the 626 nonphysician doctorate-holders of which women accounted for 291 (46.5%, p = 0.061) were equally represented. Of the 284 deans with bachelor's or master's degrees, women accounted for 180 (63.4%), a significant over-representation (p < 0.00001). This difference was most profound at the lower tier (assistant) dean level. A lower tier physician dean was 1.25 times more likely to be a man than a woman, and a higher tier (dean of medical school, senior associate, vice, or associate) physician dean was 1.16 times more likely to be a man. Conclusions: Women physicians were under-represented among medical school deans compared with men. This disparity held among lower tier and higher tier deans.

Identifying predictors of loss to follow-up (LTFU; treatment lapse ³ 2 months) among people with tuberculosis (TB) may assist programmatic efforts in controlling the spread of TB. Newly diagnosed smear-positive TB patients were enrolled in the Regional Prospective Observational Research for TB study in Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, India. Treatment records were used to identify LTFU of those who were enrolled from May 2014 through December 2017. This nested case-control study evaluated male TB patients. Predictors were assessed using multivariable logistic regression. Of 425 men with TB, 82 (19%) were LTFU. In the adjusted analyses of males, divorced/separated marital status (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 3.80; 95% CI: 1.39-10.38) and at-risk alcohol use (aOR 1.92; 95% CI: 1.12-3.27) were significant predictors for increased risk of LTFU, and diabetes was a significant predictor for decreased risk of LTFU (aOR 0.52; 95% CI: 0.29-0.92). Of 53 men with recorded date of last treatment visit, 23 (43%) and 43 (81%) had LTFU within the first 2 and first 4 months of treatment, respectively. Addressing at-risk alcohol use and providing more intensive follow-up could lead to improved treatment completion.

Introduction: Understanding the trend of student authorship is crucial in determining its correlation to scholarly impact for corresponding authors. Our objective is to investigate student authorship rates over time in articles published in JAMA Internal Medicine (IM), as well as to examine potential effects student authors have on scholarly impact scores of corresponding authors via H-index measures. Methods: Authorship data including student authors (SA), first student authors, and corresponding authors (CA) from prior JAMA IM publications between 2010 and 2018 were collected, with a total of 701 studies. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and independent sample t-tests were performed to assess for differences in the mean by publishing year and student authorship, respectively. Results: Of 4591 total authors, 683 (14.9%) were considered student authors. The percentage of student authorship increased from 46.3% to 58.0% between 2010 and 2018, respectively. No difference in average H-indices of CA between SA and non-SA groups (overall NSA H i mean: 30.2, vs SA H i mean: 32.1, p=0.371) was noted. Discussion: Student participation in research is not a disadvantage to scholarly impact for corresponding authors. Increased student authorship reflects a promising trend towards greater student participation in research within the field of medicine.

ObjectivesUnderstanding the drivers of delays from diagnosis to treatment can elucidate how to reduce the time to treatment (TTT) in patients with prostate cancer. In addition, the available treatments depending on the stage of cancer can vary widely for many reasons. This study investigated the relationship of TTT and treatment choice with sociodemographic factors in patients with prostate cancer who underwent external beam radiation therapy (RT), radical prostatectomy (RP), androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), or active surveillance (AS) at a safety-net academic medical center.Methods and materialsA retrospective review was performed on 1088 patients who were diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer between January 2005 and December 2013. Demographic data as well as data on TTT, initial treatment choice, American Joint Committee on Cancer stage, and National Comprehensive Cancer Network risk categories were collected. Analyses of variance and multivariable logistic regression models were performed to analyze the relationship of these factors with treatment choice and TTT.ResultsAge, race, and marital status were significantly related to treatment choice. Patients who were nonwhite and older than 60 years were less likely to undergo RP. Black patients were 3.8 times more likely to undergo RT compared with white patients. The median TTT was 75 days. Longer time delays were significant in patients of older age, nonwhite race/ethnicity, non-English speakers, those with noncommercial insurance, and those with non-married status. The average TTT of high-risk patients was 25 days longer than that of low-risk patients. Patients who underwent RT had an average TTT that was 34 days longer than that of RP patients.ConclusionsThe treatment choice and TTT of patients with prostate cancer are affected by demographic factors such as age, race, marital status, and insurance, as well as clinical factors including stage and risk category of disease.