Gender Differences in Internal Medicine Grand Rounds - Speakers at a Local Academic Hospital

Authors

Parisa Mortaji
Eileen Barrett

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

9-28-2018

Abstract

Despite increasing numbers of female medical students and junior physicians in America, women are still underrepresented in leadership in medicine. Many theories have been proposed to explain this, and gender bias has been shown to be a contributing factor. Within academic hospitals, grand rounds provides an opportunity for dissemination of clinical knowledge. Exposure to female presenters is thus critical to allow for female trainees to establish relationships and witness role modeling opportunities. The aim of this study is to assess whether gender differences exist in Internal Medicine grand rounds presenters at an academic hospital. We hypothesize that the proportion of women speakers will represent less than 50% of all presenters and will not represent their proportion in the physician population.

We analyzed gender differences in presenters over 4.5 years. Female presenters were compared with male presenters via a one-tailed t-test, and with population female physicians via binomial analysis.

Overall, there was an increasing number of female presenters over 4.5 years. The percent of female presenters was significantly lower than male presenters for all years except 2018. When controlling for the population proportion of female physicians, the results were statistically insignificant. In conclusion, academic centers should be encouraged to equally invite male and female colleagues to present at grand rounds. Female physicians should also be encouraged to embrace these opportunities, and serve as role models and mentors to junior faculty, while also potentially contributing to the retention of female physicians in academic medicine.

Comments

This poster was presented during the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center Education Day, 2018.

Recommended Citation

Mortaji, Parisa and Eileen Barrett. "Gender Differences in Internal Medicine Grand Rounds - Speakers at a Local Academic Hospital." (2018). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hsc_ed_day/9