Ethnic and Gender Diversity in Radiology Fellowships

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to assess ethnic and gender diversity in US radiology fellowship programs from 2006 to 2013.

Materials and methods: Data for this study was obtained from Journal of the American Medical Association supplements publications from 2005 to 2006 to 2012-2013 (Gonzalez-Moreno, Innov Manag Policy Pract. 15(2):149, 2013; Nivet, Acad Med. 86(12):1487-9, 2011; Reede, Health Aff. 22(4):91-3, 2003; Chapman et al., Radiology 270(1):232-40, 2014; Getto, 2005; Rivo and Satcher, JAMA 270(9):1074-8, 1993; Schwartz et al., Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 149(1):71-6, 2013; Simon, Clin Orthop Relat Res. 360:253-9, 1999) and the US census 2010. For each year, Fisher's exact test was used to compare the percentage of women and under-represented minorities in each Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-certified radiology fellowship to the percentage of women and under-represented minorities in (1) all ACGME-certified radiology fellowships combined, (2) radiology residents, (3) ACGME-certified fellows in all of medicine combined, (4) ACGME-certified residents in all of medicine combined, and (5) graduating medical students. Chi-Squared test was used to compare the percentage of women and under-represented minorities and the 2010 US census.

Results: p < 0.05 was used as indicator of significance. Interventional radiology and neuroradiology demonstrated the highest levels of disparities, compared to every level of medical education. Abdominal and musculoskeletal radiology fellowships demonstrated disparity patterns consistent with lack of female and URM medical graduates entering into radiology residency.

Conclusion: All radiology fellowships demonstrated variable levels of gender and ethnic disparities. Outreach efforts, pipeline programs, and mentoring may be helpful in addressing this issue.