RESUMO
Introduction: There is a historic sex imbalance in the field of orthopaedic surgery in the United States, with female physicians being vastly underrepresented. In addition, this sex imbalance is particularly pronounced in certain subspecialties. As such, we sought to analyze the distribution of graduating female residents and their fellowship match trends from 2017 to 2022. Methods: The American Medical Association Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database was used to identify all orthopaedic surgery residency programs in the United States during the 2016 to 2017 and the 2021 to 2022 academic years. The data were supplemented with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Data Book to include data on all ACGME-accredited programs in 2017 and 2022. The percentage of female orthopaedic surgery residents matching into each subspecialty was calculated. Continuous data were analyzed with independent t test, and significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: From 2017 to 2022, there has been a significant increase in the percentage of female residents matching in orthopaedic surgery fellowships (14.6% vs. 19.5%, p < 0.001). In the orthopaedic hand subspecialty, 24 (15.8%) female residents matched into a hand fellowship in 2017 vs. 56 (35.2%) in 2022 (p < 0.001). Spine, trauma, adult reconstruction, oncology, pediatrics, foot and ankle, shoulder and elbow, and sports medicine fellowships have not seen a significant change in the distribution of female residents matching over the past 5 years. Conclusion: Between 2017 and 2022, the total number of female orthopaedic surgery fellows increased, and there was significant growth in the percentage of matched female fellows in the subspecialty of hand. Other orthopaedic subspecialties including spine, trauma, adult reconstruction, oncology, pediatrics, foot and ankle, shoulder and elbow, and sports medicine have seen no significant change in the distribution of women fellows over the past 5 years. Further investigation is warranted to determine factors leading to growth in certain fellowships among female residents to encourage sex diversity among all subspecialties in orthopaedic surgery.
RESUMO
Female physicians have been historically underrepresented in orthopaedic surgery residencies. The purpose of this study was to determine whether sex diversity among orthopaedic residency programs and faculty is associated with an increased number of female residents matriculating into that program. In addition, we sought to analyze female resident matriculation trends in the past 5 years. Methods: The American Medical Association Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database was used to identify all allopathic orthopaedic surgery residency programs during the 2021 to 2022 academic year. The number of female residents and interns; the number of female faculty, professors, and associate professors; and the number of women in leadership positions were compared with data from the academic year 2016 to 2017. Continuous data were analyzed with independent t-tests, and significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: A total of 696 female residents (19.2%) were identified from 3,624 orthopaedic residents, an increase from 13.5% in 2016. Programs in the top quartile of female residents had 3 times the number of female residents per program when compared to other quartiles and almost double the number of female interns per program. Programs in the top quartile of female residents had a significantly greater number of female faculty per program than the lower quartiles; 5.76 vs. 4.18. Compared with 2016 to 2017, there were significant increases in female faculty per program from 2.77 to 4.54 along with female full professors from 0.274 to 0.694. These increases contribute to the overall growth in the number of women in leadership positions per program over the past 5 years to 1.01 from 0.35 (p < 0.001). Conclusion: In the past 5 years, the percentage of female residents has increased from 13.5% to 19.2%. Furthermore, women make up 22.1% of interns. Orthopaedic surgery residency programs with higher percentages of female faculty had higher numbers of female residents. By encouraging programs to promote female representation within leadership and residents, we may continue to see the gap in orthopaedic sex diversity close. Level of Evidence: III.