Clinical Practice Patterns of Interventional Radiologists by Gender.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE. Given recent specialty attention to workforce diversity, we aimed to characterize potential gender differences in the practice patterns of interventional radiologists (IRs). MATERIALS AND METHODS. Using Medicare claims data, we identified IRs on the basis of the distribution of their billed clinical work effort and descriptively characterized practice patterns by gender. RESULTS. Women represented 8.2% (241/2936) of all IRs identified nationally. Female representation varied geographically (≤ 2% in nine states, ≥ 20% in three states) and by career stage (9.4% among early-career IRs and 6.4% among late-career IRs; 18.8% among early-career IRs in the Northeast). For both female IRs and male IRs, interventional case mixes were similar across service categories (e.g., venous and hemodialysis access, arterial and venous interventions, biopsies and drainages) and by procedural complexity (e.g., 5.7% vs 4.3% for low-complexity procedures and 59.5% vs 61.3% for high-complexity procedures). Average patient complexity scores were also similar for female (2.7 ± 12 [SD]) and male (2.8 ± 12) IRs. Female IRs spent slightly lower portions of their work effort rendering invasive services (66.5% vs 70.0%, respectively) and noninvasive diagnostic imaging (19.0% vs 22.2%) than male IRs but spent more time in evaluation and management clinical visits (14.5% vs 7.9%). Both female IRs and male IRs rendered a majority of their services to female patients (53.4% vs 53.1%). CONCLUSION. Although women remain underrepresented in interventional radiology, female IRs' interventional case composition, procedural complexity, and patient complexity are similar to those of their male colleagues. Female IRs' higher proportion of evaluation and management clinical visits supports the specialty's increased focus on longitudinal care so that interventional radiology will thrive alongside other clinical specialties.