Women in Academic IR: Where Are They Now?

Monday, March 6, 2023

3:20 PM – 3:30 PM

Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 222AB

Presenting Author(s)

Marvee Espiritu, MSPAS (she/her/hers)

Medical Student
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine

Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

Author/Co-author(s)

PM

Pranav Moudgil, MD

Physician
Beaumont Health, Department of Radiology, Division of Interventional Radiology
PD

Purushottam Dixit, MD, FSIR

Physician
Beaumont Health, Department of Radiology, Division of Interventional Radiology

Disclosure(s):

Marvee Espiritu, MSPAS: No financial relationships to disclose

Purpose: Historically, interventional radiology has been one of the least diverse specialties in female and minority representation. With the recent establishment of the Integrated IR Residency, the percentage of female IR trainees has increased, however, women remain underrepresented in IR, making up only 9.8% of active interventional radiologists. Increasing female representation in IR has been a primary focus of the Society of Interventional Radiology and it is therefore of interest to determine whether efforts have been productive and where potential improvements can be made. The purpose of this study is to determine the distribution of female trainees and attendings based on program reputation.

Materials and Methods: All 92 ACGME accredited Integrated IR programs in the United States obtained from the SIR website were initially included in the study. The total number of IR residents and female IR residents as well as the total number of IR attendings and female IR attendings in each program, available through the program’s website, were collected. 16 programs with insufficient information were excluded from the analysis. Radiology program rankings based on reputation were obtained from Doximity’s Residency Navigator. Active IR residents based on sex were also collected from the AAMC data report for the years 2017-2021. Linear regression analysis and student’s t-test were used for statistical analysis.

Results: In total, 76 Integrated IR programs were included in the analysis. Linear regression analysis showed a much stronger correlation between program ranking and number of female IR residents (R2 = 0.242) as compared to program ranking and number of female IR attendings (R2 = 0.013). Significantly more female IR residents were found to be training at top 40 programs (p = 0.005). Only 2 programs in the top 40 had no female residents compared to 16 programs outside the top 40.

Conclusion: Our study showed a significantly higher percentage of female IR residents in programs ranked in the top 40 programs. Interestingly, female academic IR attendings were more evenly distributed than residents. Further initiatives are needed to recruit more women into residency programs that have an existing gender gap. Potential interventions include outreach to medical student organizations such as collaborations between IR interest groups and for example American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) chapters to increase awareness of IR. Increased networking within SIR’s Women in IR section may also prove beneficial to the recruitment of future female IRs.