NIH funding for female surgeon-scientists increases, still lags behind male surgeons
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Key takeaways:
- The percentage of female surgeon-scientists increased between 2012 and 2022.
- Female surgeon-scientists held more K series grants compared with male surgeons.
The proportion of female surgeon-scientists increased between 2012 and 2022 but remained underfunded with certain NIH grants compared with their male counterparts, according to study findings published in JAMA Surgery.
Of note, researchers observed a significantly higher proportion of female surgeons in the early stages of their careers vs. male surgeons, which may account for the disparity in certain NIH-funded grants, they noted.
Image: Adobe Stock
Previous findings
“Current reports suggest that the surgeon-scientist phenotype is significantly threatened,” Martha A. Zeiger, MD, FACS, director of the Office of Surgeon Scientist Programs at NIH’s Center for Cancer Research, and colleagues wrote. “However, a significant increase in the proportion of surgeons in the workforce funded by the NIH between 2010 and 2020 was recently reported.”
As Healio previously reported, Zeiger and colleagues reviewed the iSearch Grants database including NIH-funded surgeons and used active physician data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to calculate NIH-funded surgeons and total U.S. surgeon populations in June 2010 or June 2020. The number of women among the total number of surgeons who received NIH grants and the total grant amounts awarded to them served as the main outcome.
Results of that analysis showed that the percentage of men funded by the NIH increased from 0.5% to 0.73% whereas the proportion of women funded by the NIH increased from 0.49% to 0.66%. Additionally, women comprised 25.4% of surgeons with funding in the U.S. in 2020 but received only 21.7% of total NIH funding awarded to all women surgeon scientists.
Updated analysis
For the current analysis, researchers provided an update on the status of surgeons funded by the NIH between 2012 and 2022.
Overall, 1,324 surgeon-scientists received $1.3 billion in 2022. The majority of R01 grants (74.5%) were for basic science, 19% for clinical trials and 6.5% for outcomes research.
Female surgeon-scientists comprised 31.3% of contact principal investigators (PIs) in 2022 compared with 21% in 2012. Most grants were awarded to white surgeon PIs (71.1%), followed by Asian (22.8%) and Black or African American (4%) surgeon PIs.
Researchers observed an overall increase in female surgeon-scientist contact PIs from 184 in 2012 to 339 in 2022, whereas the number of male surgeon-scientists increased from 692 contact PIs in 2012 to 745 PIs in 2022.
Results also showed increases in total NIH-funding awarded to female surgeons from $92.8 million in 2012 to $229.6 million in 2022 compared with $463.2 million in 2012 to $695.40 million in 2022 for male surgeons.
Moreover, the proportion of NIH-funded female surgeons significantly increased from 21% to 31.3% (P < .001) and total funding costs increased from 16.7% to 24.8% (P < .001).
Results additionally showed a higher proportion of female surgeon-scientists aged younger than 46 years compared with male surgeon-scientists (49.1% vs. 46.5%; P < .001). Conversely, researchers observed a higher proportion of male surgeon-scientists aged older than 60 years (25.1% vs. 12%; P < .001).
Female surgeon-scientists held more K series grants compared with males (23% vs. 10%), and less R series (54% vs. 61%) and U series grants (10% vs. 14%).
“Our analysis showed an almost equal number of mentored grants awarded to both male surgeons (n = 108) and female surgeons (n =107) in FY2022, suggesting that, comparatively, more women surgeons are entering the path toward independent funding than previously reported,” researchers wrote.
‘Growing pipeline’
“While the proportion of NIH-funded female surgeons has increased, they are still underfunded by NIH compared with male surgeons,” Zeiger and colleagues wrote. “While the number of NIH-funded surgeons is growing, they are still under par with their nonsurgeon colleagues and colleagues with PhDs.
“Therefore, based on the success of the surgical society funding, dedicated program development for surgeons early in their career is imperative to sustain the growing pipeline of independent surgeon-scientists,” they continued. “Although additional programming to support all surgical specialties is still needed, the results of this study suggest that despite the many obstacles surgeon-scientists face, they continue to perform a myriad of scientific research funded by NIH, both independently and in multidisciplinary teams.”
Researchers plan to conduct additional multivariable analyses to examine potential factors of success — including institution, additional advanced degrees and previous K08 funding — and compare the findings with nonsurgeon physicians.
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