Abstract

The objective of this work was to delineate career progression and research productivity of women practicing cardiothoracic surgery in the academic setting.Cardiothoracic surgeons at the 79 accredited U.S. cardiothoracic surgery training programs in 2020 were included in this cross-sectional analysis. Data regarding sub-specialization, training, practice history, and publications were gathered from public sources including department websites, CTSNet, and Scopus.A total of 1065 surgeons (51.3% cardiac, 32.1% thoracic, 16.6% congenital) were identified. Women accounted for 10.6% (113) of the population (7.9% of cardiac, 15.5% of thoracic, 9.6% of congenital surgeons). The median number of cardiothoracic surgeons per institution was 12 [IQR 10-17], with a median of one woman [IQR 0-2]. Fifteen of 79 (19%) programs had zero women. Among women faculty, 5.3% were clinical instructors, 51.3% were assistant professors, 23.0% were associate professors, 16.8% were full professors, and 3.5% had unspecified titles (vs. 2.0%, 32.9%, 23.0%, 37.5%, and 4.6% among men, respectively, p<0.001). Women and men authored a comparable number of first-author (0.4 [0.0-1.3] vs. 0.5 [0.0-1.1], p=0.56) publications per year, but fewer last-author (0.1 [0.0-0.7] vs. 0.4 [0.0-1.3], p<0.0001) and total publications per year (2.7 [1.0-6.2] vs. 3.7 [1.3-7.8], p=0.05) than men. H-index was lower for women than for men overall (8.0 [3.0-15.0] vs. 15.0 [7.0-28.0], p<0.001), but was similar between men and women who had been practicing for 10-20 years.Gender disparities persist in academic cardiothoracic surgery. Efforts should be made to support women in achieving senior roles and academic productivity.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2022.04.057

View details for PubMedID 35643331