Percentage of women matched for hand fellowship increased between 2017 and 2024
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Key takeaways:
- The percentage of matched hand fellows who were women increased between 2017 and 2024.
- Women and men had similar bibliometric characteristics and Alpha Omega Alpha membership status.
Results presented at the American Society for Surgery of the Hand Annual Meeting showed an increase in the percentage of women matched for hand fellowship between 2017 and 2024.
“Because men and women seem to have similar qualifications, at least in hand surgery, there are a lot of potential studies and avenues that could be taken to think about ways to continually increase gender diversity and inclusivity in hand surgery,” Janet Hsu, a second-year medical student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told Healio.
Hsu, Steven M. Koehler, MD, FAAOS, and colleagues collected data on Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) membership status, number of publications, number of first-author publications and H-indices before residency and after residency among 839 orthopedic residents who matched into hand surgery between 2017 and 2024.
Hsu said the percentage of hand fellows who were women increased from 18.9% in 2017 to 34.7% in 2024.
“When we looked at the bibliometric characteristics, whether it was before residency or in total, we found that men and women had similar qualifications on that front,” Hsu said. “When we looked at AOA [membership], we found that they were similar as well between men and women.”
However, women who matched into hand surgery tended to be from higher-ranked orthopedic surgery residencies and medical schools compared with men, according to Hsu.
“We understand that is extremely nuanced, so we are not quite sure where that came from,” Hsu said.
According to Koehler, the results of this study are reflective of initiatives of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand to focus on gender diversity in orthopedics.
“It is a big focus of the society to encourage and foster diversity within the specialty,” Koehler, of Montefiore-Einstein Orthopaedics, told Healio. “When you have an entire field that has that top-down focus, then you are going to see it reflected in our fellowship matches, you are going to see the field have that transformation and you are going to see the parity in our fellowship matches, as well. I think that is also what this study is reflective of because it is not just a grassroots movement. It is also a top-down push by leadership, and I think that that is also an important reflection.”
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Hsu J, et al. Paper 69. Presented at: American Society for Surgery of the Hand Annual Meeting; Sept. 19-21, 2024; Minneapolis.
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