31. Global Gender Representation Among Presidents of Cardiothoracic Surgery Societies
University Of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI
United States - Contact Me
Jennifer C. Romano, M.D., M.S. is the Herbert Sloan Collegiate Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School, specializing in surgery for congenital and pediatric acquired heart disease. Her practice encompasses all elements of pediatric cardiac surgery with a focus on neonatal surgery and hybrid interventions. She serves as the Program Director for the University of Michigan ACGME Congenital Heart Surgery Residency. The University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital Congenital Heart Center is internationally recognized as a leader in the care of patients with congenital heart disease (CHD), performing 500-600 open-heart and 1000 total operations each year. Dr. Romano is also active nationally as a Director for the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, Congenital Deputy Editor for Annals of Thoracic Surgery, the Second Vice President for the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and as Secretary-Treasurer for the Congenital Heart Surgeons Society.
Mayo Clinic - Rochester
Rochester, MN
United States - Contact Me
General Surgery Resident, PGY2; Mayo Clinic, Rochester
Abstract
Methods:A comprehensive search was performed to identify various cardiothoracic surgical societies worldwide and divided by regions of Northern America, Southern America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and international societies. The society data obtained was further cross verified with the societies list available on CTSNet.org. Respective societies official webpage was searched to extract data on past and present presidents. If one individual was elected as a president in two different societies,it was considered as two presidencies; however, if one individual remained the president in one respective society for two consecutive terms, we considered this as single presidency. Gender was determined and verified via publicly available online profiles. The 95% confidence interval (CI) of proportion was calculated using Binomial exact calculation. All analyses were computed in R statistical software version 4.1.2.
Results: A total of 34 societies pertaining to cardiothoracic surgery were identified globally. Of these, 19 societies were from the Northern America, 1 from Southern America, 5 from Europe, 4 from Asia, 2 from Africa, 1 from Australia and 2 international societies. Of the 34 societies identified, only 16 societies provided complete information about their past and present presidents in the public domain. Among these 16 societies, a total of 535 past and current society presidents were identified. Women constituted only 11 [2.06%; 95% CI:1.03%; 3.65%] of the total 535 presidents. The absolute distribution of female presidents based on continent is delineated in Figure 1. The proportion of female past and current presidents in the North American continent was 2.31%; 95% CI:1.06%; 4.35%, whilst, in the Europe was 1.68%; 95% CI:0.20%; 5.94%. Furthermore, the first female president was appointed in the year 2007 across societies.
Conclusion: A stark lag exists in the gender distribution of presidential roles of the cardiothoracic societies globally with paucity of women. Although, there has been increasing inclusion of women in the last two decades, definitive measures are imperative to identify and mitigate the disparities to improve inclusion.