131 - Female Representation and Leadership in Academic Interventional Radiology
Shima Tafreshi, MD – Resident Physician, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Program; Shakthi Kumaran, MD – Research Fellow, Stanford University; Priyam Choudhury, MD – Research Fellow, Mayo Clinic - Jacksonville; Barbara Hamilton, MD – Physician, Desert Regional Medical Center
Purpose: Women have traditionally comprised the minority in academic radiology departments. Less is known about interventional radiology (IR) and its leadership breakdown by gender. Lack of female representation and leadership have been identified as barriers to recruitment to IR. Since female trainees have endorsed the importance of concordant gender role models and mentors early in their radiology careers, a paucity of such representation in academic settings can contribute to an ongoing gender gap in IR.
Material and Methods: Fellowship trained female identifying IR faculty were queried from academic websites of ACGME accredited Integrated IR residency, Early Specialization in Interventional Radiology (ESIR), and Independent Residency programs in the United States. The percentage of women within interventional radiology, neurointerventional, and/or pediatric interventional departments, as well as internal leadership roles held by these women were documented. Date of the last query was October 10, 2022.
Results: Out of a total of 159 unique departments, women represented approximately 11% of all IR faculty, and about a third of these women held internal leadership positions. Of those, 12% of these women represent the department as the section chair. 7% and 11% of women held program or assistant program director positions in integrated residencies, respectively, while 5% of women held these positions among the independent programs. Nearly more than a quarter of women in leadership reported holding multiple leadership roles concurrently, usually as committee or subdivision chairs within the department. At the time of the search query, only one female interventional chairperson led the entire radiology department.
Conclusions: Women represent a small percentage of academic IRs. While some of these women occupy multiple concurrent leadership roles within the division, there remains a dearth of women in academic IR at large. Efforts to promote further female representation or to identify additional barriers in diversity within IR should be researched.