Women, parents experience high levels of burden from early, late tumor board meeting times
Key takeaways:
- Among parents, 55.8% reported a negative burden on child care and 63.6% reported a negative burden on family dynamics.
- Individuals in radiology or pathology specialties experienced the highest burden overall.
Women and parents reported experiencing high levels of burden from early morning or late evening tumor boards, according to study results published in JAMA Network Open.
The findings specifically showed that having two or more children, attending 3 or more hours per week of tumor boards, and those in radiology or pathology specialties experienced the highest burden overall, researchers concluded.
Work-life balance
“I started having more discussions with — mostly women — junior faculty colleagues about the frequency and ease for which administrative and other meetings would be scheduled outside of regular business hours, including the particular challenges this poses for parents with young children trying to navigate a sustainable work-life balance,” Katelyn Atkins, MD, PhD, clinical director, associate residency program director and assistant professor in the department of radiation oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, told Healio.
During those discussions, Atkins said the topic of the potential negative impact of saying no to these types of meetings on one’s career would arise.
“We hypothesized that there would be a discrete and measurable impact of disparate burden if we could narrow the question enough,” she added. “I was on a FaceTime call one weekend with my good friend, colleague and co-author, Devarati Mitra, MD, PhD, letting our kids play and chat on the phone, while we brainstormed what could be a specific and measurable endpoint on the topic of administrative burden to explore these hypotheses. That is how we developed the idea to measure tumor board burden and the impact of early or late meeting times.”
Atkins and colleagues sought to assess the potential physician- and tumor board–related factors that may be associated with higher tumor board burden among oncology physicians. They disseminated a cross-sectional convenience survey posted on social media and sent via email to practicing oncologists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center between March 3 and April 3, 2022. Overall, 111 physicians (median age, 42 years; 52.3% women; 54.1% white) completed the survey.
Researchers independently collected tumor board start times via email from 22 top cancer centers, and measured tumor board burden on a 4-point scale, where 1 = not at all burdensome, 2 = slightly burdensome, 3 = moderately burdensome and 4 = very burdensome.
They additionally performed univariable and multivariable probabilistic index (PI) models.
Survey results
Results showed independent associations with a higher level of burden from early or late tumor boards and identifying as a woman (PI = 0.69; 95% CI, 0.57-0.78) as well as having children (PI = 0.75; 95% CI, 0.62-0.84).
Among the 77 parents surveyed, 55.8% reported a negative burden on child care and 63.6% reported a negative burden on family dynamics.
Researchers additionally identified factors associated with a higher probability of tumor board burden, including radiology or pathology specialties (PI = 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54-0.79), attending 3 or more hours per week of tumor boards (PI = 0.68; 95% CI, 0.58- 0.76), and having two or more children (PI = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.52-0.77).
Moreover, 29.7% of respondents considered early (before 8 a.m.) or late (5 p.m. or later) tumor boards burdensome. Of note, results of independent assessment of 358 tumor boards from 22 institutions showed that the most common start time was before 8 a.m. (24.6%).
Do better
“There is a disparate impact of tumor board burden on parents, women and specific subspecialists — we need to do better to explore pathways that reduce this burden,” Atkins told Healio.
“We hope that these findings can contribute toward potential solutions, including organizational changes that prioritize wellness of physicians and their families,” she said. “For example, eliminating meetings at early or late times, as well as reducing administrative burden, continuing virtual format options, exploring novel ‘asynchronous’ tumor board formats, and/or implementation of compensation, such as monetary or ‘time banking’ for tangible benefits.”
For more information:
Katelyn M. Atkins, MD, PhD, can be reached at katelyn.atkins@cshs.org.
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