Gender Disparities in Reimbursement Among Dermatologists and Dermatologic Surgeons

Bhala, Sonia; Rubin, Arnold D.; Srivastava, Radhika; Firoz, Bahar F.

doi:10.1097/dss.0000000000003660

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 20 publications

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“…The number of women in ophthalmology has been on the rise, and the percentage of women in the field is expected to increase at a faster rate as women now constitute 50% of all US medical graduates and 44.3% of ophthalmology residents, reflecting the trend in other medical fields as well [1]. However, women are still underrepresented in the field of ophthalmology as well as other specialties like urology and orthopedic surgery [3][4][5][6]. Furthermore, there are still gender disparities on a national scale among leadership positions [7,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Disparities Among Academic Vitreoretinal Specialists in the United States With Regard to Scholarly Impact and Academic Rank

Oncel¹,

Syal²,

Oncel³

et al. 2023

Cureus

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Background and objective While men outnumber women in the specialty of ophthalmology in general, the subspecialty of vitreoretinal surgery in particular has the highest percentage of men across all ophthalmic subspecialties. This study aimed to analyze the gender disparities regarding the publication productivity and academic rank of academic vitreoretinal specialists in the United States (US). Methods This cross-sectional study evaluated 116 ophthalmology residency programs in the US participating in the 2022 San Francisco Match. The academic vitreoretinal faculty from each ophthalmology residency program was included. The information on gender, academic rank, and publication activity in terms of the h-index were collected from institutional websites, the Scopus database, and the National Library of Medicine PubMed website. Results A total of 467 academic vitreoretinal specialists were identified. Among them, 345 (73.9%) were men, and 122 (26.1%) were women (p<0.001). When the academic ranks were analyzed, a higher number of men (43.8%) were found to hold the rank of full professor as compared to women. Furthermore, a higher number of women (47.5%) were found to hold the rank of assistant professor as compared to their male colleagues. Regarding the number of publications, in all academic rank categories, women had a significantly lower number of publications compared to men (p<0.001). Men also had a higher publication productivity or scholarly impact [h-index=15.2 ± 0.82 standard error of the mean (SEM)] compared to women (h-index=12.8 ± 0.99 SEM) (p=0.0004). Higher h-index correlated with higher academic rank, from assistant professor through full professor (p<0.001). Conclusion The field of vitreoretinal surgery has significantly fewer women compared to men, with women producing fewer publications and having less scholarly impact. H-index and total number of publications are also associated with a higher academic rank. Furthermore, full professors are more likely to be men, while assistant professors are more likely to be women. Future efforts should be aimed at reducing the gender disparity in vitreoretinal surgery.

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