A lack of representation could be deterring women and underrepresented in medicine (URiM) medical students from pursuing careers in interventional radiology.
That’s according to recent survey data detailing the opinions of hundreds of medical students at five medical schools across the United States. According to the data, gaps in female mentorship are of particular concern for women who might have otherwise pursued a career path in IR. On a scale of 0 to 4, with 0 representing factors that are not a motivator and 4 representing those that are strong motivators, women who expressed interest in IR ranked “female mentorship” at 2.5, while their male counterparts ranked it at just 0.4, respectively.
The survey's results were published recently in Clinical Imaging, where experts warned that, regardless of recent improvements, representation remains an issue within the specialty.
“Despite wide recognition that a diverse healthcare workforce is pivotal to providing equitable and culturally competent care to an increasingly diverse U.S. population, representation in interventional radiology of women and members of underrepresented in medicine racial and ethnic groups continues to lag,” corresponding author Jocelyn L. Cheng, of the Department of Diagnostic Imaging at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Rhode Island, and colleagues noted. “Women represent only 9.2% of active IR physicians and 7.3% of IR faculty members according to Society of Interventional Radiology demographics data.”
A lack of representation also was cited as a concern among the cohort of URiM students surveyed; those who were not interested ranked “lack of ethnic diversity in training” as a factor that influenced their motivation to pursue IR, ranking it at 2.3 out of 4.
But perhaps the most obvious take home point from the group’s data was their view on mentorship. Just 18% of females surveyed felt that there was adequate gender-specific mentorship within the specialty; URiM students had an even less optimistic view of the matter, with just 5% of respondents reporting adequate ethnicity/race-specific mentorship.
“There is evidence that mentorship increases productivity, career satisfaction and faculty retention; yet women and members of URiM racial and ethnic groups are less likely to have a mentor across varying training levels,” the group noted.
As far as the reasons underlying the lack of representation in IR, the authors explained that they are wide-ranging and complex; they include factors such as structural inequities and implicit bias, both of which can “manifest in lower rates of promotion and retention even when controlling for degree, tenure status, grant support and research productivity.”
The solution to the problem is equally complex, the authors suggested; remedying the situation will require a multi-faceted approach to increase both the presence and visibility of women and members of racial and ethnic URiM groups within the specialty and its mentoring positions, the group concluded.
The study abstract is available here.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She joined Innovate Healthcare in 2021 and has since put her unique expertise to use in her editorial role with Health Imaging.