Commitment to inclusion: The importance of collaboration in gender equity work.

Despite decades of faculty professional development programs created to prepare women for leadership, gender inequities persist in salary, promotion, and leadership roles. Indeed, men still earn more than women, are more likely than women to hold the rank of professor, and hold the vast majority of positions of power in academic medicine. Institutions demonstrate commitment to their faculty's growth by investing resources, including creating faculty development programs. These programs are essential to help prepare women to lead and navigate the highly matrixed, complex systems of academic medicine. However, data still show that women persistently lag behind men in their career advancement and salary. Clearly, training women to adapt to existing structures and norms alone is not sufficient. To effectively generate organizational change, leaders with power and resources must commit to gender equity. This article describes several efforts by the Office of Faculty in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to broaden inclusivity in collaborative work for gender equity. The authors are women and men leaders in the Office of Faculty, which is within the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine dean's office and includes Women in Science and Medicine. Here, we discuss potential methods to advance gender equity using inclusivity based on our institutional experience and on the findings of other studies. Ongoing data collection to evaluate programmatic outcomes in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will be reported in the future.

Historical Inequities in Medical Education - Commitment to Opportunity, Diversity, and Equity at the University of Hawai'i School of Medicine.

Medical education in the US has contributed to institutionalized racism through historically exclusionary practices, which has led to health disparities and inequities in health care today. The 1910 Flexner report, which favored schools with greater resources, led to the closure of nearly half of medical schools in the Us, which were mostly small schools located in rural communities that served economically disadvantaged, ethnic minority, and female populations. Closing these schools ultimately limited the availability of physicians willing to serve disadvantaged and minority populations in impoverished and underserved communities. In order to transform medical education to be more equitable, medical schools must be proactive in opportunity, diversity, and equity efforts. This not only includes efforts in admissions and faculty hiring, but also curricula related to social and health disparities, interracial interactions between students and faculty, and service learning activities that engage and work with marginalized communities. The University of Hawai'i John A. Burns School of Medicine has a longstanding commitment to diversity, which is integral to the school's mission. Providing opportunities to underserved populations has been a priority since establishment of the school. As one of the most diverse univeristies in the US, the school of medicine continues to focus on opportunity, diversity, and equity priorities in both its strategic planning and overall mission.

Perceptions of the Minority Tax Experienced by Faculty and Students Underrepresented in Medicine at the University of Wisconsin.

INTRODUCTION: The minority tax in academic medicine can be defined as the additional responsibilities placed on underrepresented in medicine (URiM) faculty, staff, and students in the name of diversity. Often this looks like participating in additional diversity committees, recruitment efforts, and mentorship activities. These extra responsibilities often are not recognized, not included in promotions, and take time from other clinical, research, and traditional scholarly responsibilities. OBJECTIVES: There is a significant gap in the literature examining the experiences of URiM-identifying faculty and students in relation to the minority tax. Our goal was to do a quality improvement project to explore this gap through interviewing URiM-identifying faculty and conducting focus groups with URiM-identifying students, with the goal of making recommendations to help reduce the minority tax burdens to this community. METHODS: A scoping literature review on the minority tax burden in academic medicine was used to inform the development of questions to use in focus groups of URiM University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH) students and interviews of URiM UWSMPH faculty members. After development of a facilitation guide, we conducted three 1-hour focus groups with 14 students who identified as URiM and did eight 30-minute interviews with faculty who identified as URiM. A codebook was generated using inductive analysis after reviewing transcripts. Coding was performed independently with 2 separate coders in order to ensure inter-coder reliability. RESULTS: Ninety-one percent of students and 62.5% of faculty endorsed experiencing the minority tax at UWSMPH. Faculty also reported increasing feelings of support due to UWSMPH programs that support URiM faculty. Students reported the minority tax being central to their role as URiM students. Both students and faculty reported that the additional burdens of the minority tax took time away from traditional scholarly activities that were essential for promotion (faculty) or residency (students). CONCLUSIONS: The minority tax burden experienced by URiM faculty and students may negatively affect their careers, as they note spending more time on activities that may not be valued for promotion. It is essential to address these burdens in order to achieve equity within the medical institution.

Matching Against Men: 5 Years of Residency Match Data Show Disparities Still Exist.

OBJECTIVES: Despite progress toward equal representation by sex in medical practice, women remain underrepresented in many specialties. This study sought to examine the current state of gender equality among recently graduated doctors in multiple specialties. METHODS: Deidentified demographics, standardized examination scores, and Match results were gathered for 829 graduates. Participants were selected from an allopathic medical school between 2016 and 2020. Nineteen students (2.29%) were excluded from the study. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and χ2 tests for independence were used to compare proportions between reported sex and specialty and program Match results. One-way analysis of variance was then performed to test for differences in US Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 and Step 2 scores between sexes. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Of the 829 individuals studied, 44.6% were women. A significantly smaller proportion of women matched into the most competitive specialties, despite no significant difference in US Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 scores between sexes. Furthermore, there was an overall significant trend of women matching into more competitive programs for any given specialty. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we found that men matched into more highly competitive specialties, whereas women matched into more competitive residency program locations. Further research is needed to determine why women matched into specific specialties at lower rates than their male peers and seek to understand how sex affects the narrative of specialty choice.

Perceptions and experiences of undergraduate medical students regarding social accountability: a cross-sectional study at a Subsaharan African medical school.

BACKGROUND: Medical schools are called to be socially accountable by medical education and healthcare system stakeholders. Social accountability is a feature of excellent medical education. Medical students are essential to the development of socially accountable medical schools. Therefore, understanding the perceptions and experiences of medical students regarding social accountability is critical for efforts to improve social accountability practices and outcomes. METHODS: This cross-sectional online questionnaire-based survey used Google Forms and involved medical students in their fourth and fifth years of study at the Makerere University School of Medicine. The survey was conducted between September 2022 and October 2023. We used a study questionnaire and a validated toolkit designed by students as part of The Training for Health Equity Collaborative to gauge a school's progress towards social accountability in medical schools to collect data on demographics, perceptions and experiences and evaluate social accountability. RESULTS: Out of 555 eligible medical students, 426 responded to the online questionnaire. The response rate was 77%. The mean age of the students was 25.24 ± 4.4 years. Almost three fourths of the students were male (71.3%), and slightly less than two thirds were in their fourth year of study (65%). Almost half of the students (48.1%%) evaluated the school as doing well with regard to social accountability. The evaluation items referring to community-based research and positive impact on the community had the highest mean scores. Only 6 (3.6%) students who reported hearing of social accountability had a clear understanding of social accountability. Students receiving career guidance in secondary school was associated with evaluating social accountability in the medical school as strong (p-0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Medical students evaluated the medical school favorably forsocial accountability despite lacking a clear understanding of social accountability. Receiving career guidance in secondary school was significantly associated with a positive evaluation of social accountability.

Evaluating the domains of generalism and equity, diversity and inclusion in preclinical simulated cases for targeted curricular improvements.

BACKGROUND: Simulated cases are widely used in medical education to develop clinical reasoning skills and discuss key topics around patient care. Such cases present an opportunity to demonstrate real world encounters with diverse patient and health provider identities, impacts of social and structural determinants of health, and demonstrate a generalist approach to problems. However, despite many calls-to-action for medical schools to better incorporate equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and generalism, it remains difficult to evaluate how well these goals are being met. METHODS: A quality improvement project was completed at a single medical school to evaluate the domains of generalism and EDI within simulated cases used in the preclinical curriculum. Generalism was evaluated using the Toronto Generalism Assessment Tool (T-GAT). EDI was evaluated using a locally developed novel tool. Analysis included descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: A total of 49 simulated cases were reviewed. Twelve generalism and 5 EDI items were scored on a 5-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating better demonstration of generalism or EDI within a case. Average generalism score across all cases was 45.6/60. Average EDI score across all cases was 11.7/25. Only 21/49 cases included representation of one or more diverse identity categories. The most common diverse identity represented was non-white races/ethnicities, and the identity represented the least was diversity in language fluency. Generalism and EDI scores demonstrated a weak positive correlation (R2 = 0.25). CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative evaluation of simulated cases using specific generalism and EDI scoring tools was successful in generating insight into areas of improvement for teaching cases. This approach identified key content areas for case improvement and identities that are currently underrepresented in teaching cases. Similar approaches could be feasibly used by other medical schools to improve generalism and EDI in teaching cases or other curricular materials.

Sociodemographic disadvantage in the burden of stress and academic performance in medical school: implications for diversity in medicine.

BACKGROUND: Nontraditional students bring to medicine inherent characteristics and perspectives that enrich the learning environment and contribute to expanding diversity in medicine. However, research has shown that these students, by virtue of their sociodemographic backgrounds, face unique challenges in medical education, which ultimately place them at a disadvantage compared to their peers. The purpose of this study is to explore relationships between sociodemographic characteristics, stress, and academic performance, in the context of outcomes that may be undermining efforts to diversify the physician workforce. METHODS: Using a retrospective observational cohort methodology, we examined institutional and USMLE exam performance data in conjunction with Perceived Stress Scale-4 survey results from six cohorts of students at Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV (n = 358). Using independent samples t-test, mean stress and academic performance were compared between four sociodemographic groups: first-generation college students, underrepresented in medicine (URM), socioeconomically disadvantaged, and age 30 + at matriculation. Results were considered significant where P ≤ .05. RESULTS: First-generation college students had significantly higher stress at the end of third year clerkships (mean 7.8 vs. 6.8, P* = .03). URM students had significantly lower scores on preclinical exams (mean 81.37 vs. 83.07, P* = .02). The students who were age 30 + at matriculation had significantly lower exam scores on all academic performance measures. CONCLUSION: Our results echo historic trends in academic performance for racial and ethnic minority students, and we present recent evidence of academic performance disparities based on age at matriculation. Residency program directors continue to use test scores as a primary metric to screen applicants and thus, poor academic performance has profound consequences on career trajectory. Finally, significantly higher stress in the first-generation students may be evidence of underlying psychological distress. Expanding the sociodemographic diversity among physicians, and by extension, medical students, has long been recognized as fundamental to addressing inequities in healthcare. However, results from our study suggest that aspects of medical education are unfavorable and disadvantageous for first-generation, URM, and older medical students. A deeper understanding of the interplay between sociodemographic characteristics and success in medical school is paramount as we pursue diversity in medicine.

Characterization of content associated with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer individuals in Chilean medical schools: a cross-sectional survey.

BACKGROUND: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and other sexual and gender identities (LGBTIQ+) individuals face health inequities. Additionally, medical students report a lack of confidence in providing specific health care to LGBTIQ + individuals, and medical schools do not offer the breadth and depth of coverage needed to fully prepare and make them comfortable in caring for these individuals. This study aims to characterize the teaching of curricular content related to LGBTIQ + health issues in medical schools in Chile. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional descriptive mixed-methods study based on a 15-question survey sent to school directors of the 24 medical schools in Chile, conducted between October 2020 and July 2021. The questions included in the study were mostly based on two pre-existing questionnaires covering content, assessment methods, and identification of barriers to teaching this content. RESULTS: The validated questionnaire was answered by 14 of 24 Chilean medical schools, with 11 schools (78.9%) declaring that they included some training in their curriculum. The predominant range of time allocated to LGBTIQ + training in medical programs was between 1 and 5 h. The most addressed topics were HIV (92.85%), sexual orientation (78.57%), and chronic disease risk in LGBTIQ + populations (78.57%). Most schools, accounting for 71.5%, considered the content they delivered to be "moderately insufficient" or "insufficient". Regarding the teaching methodologies, the most used were lectures (92.8%), clinical cases (42.9%), and clinical simulation (28.6%). CONCLUSION: Most surveyed medical schools reported curricular spaces dedicated to teaching health issues of LGBTIQ + individuals, primarily during the pre-internship training period. However, the time allocated is insufficient, and there is little approach to topics beyond the patient's sexual history or sexual orientation. Given the crucial role of medical schools, they must adopt both local and national strategies to enrich training focused on the care of LGBTIQ + patients.

The Price of Productivity: Evaluating the Cost of a Research Year.

OBJECTIVE: Research years during medical school are becoming increasingly common amongst applicants to competitive residency programs. As many of these positions are unpaid, it is important to consider the financial implications of these experiences and the feasibility of participation from students of all backgrounds. This study aims to quantify the cost of a research year during medical school. DESIGN/SETTING: We identified the top 50 NIH-funded medical schools of 2022 and obtained cost-of-living information for each of their respective counties. Estimated loan interest accrual resulting from a research year was calculated using information on the cost of attendance to medical school and annual interest rates for federal education loans. Cost-of-living calculations were stratified by geographic region, and interest accrual calculations by timing of research year and attendance at public versus private medical schools. RESULTS: Top 50 NIH-funded medical schools in the West are located in counties with the highest mean and median costs of living, each approaching nearly $45,000 per year. Medical schools in the Midwest are located in counties with the lowest mean and median cost of living, at less than $36,000 annually. Estimated loan interest accrual resulting from a research year ranges from $3177 to $17,789, depending on timing of the research year and type of medical school attended. CONCLUSIONS: This study exemplifies the significant financial burden that a research year can impose on medical students. As more residency applicants pursuing competitive specialties opt for research years during medical school, it is important to consider the associated financial implications. Many research year opportunities are unpaid or underpaid, which may prevent interested individuals from participating; this is especially the case for those who are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Moving forward, it is imperative that we ensure the availability of equitable and funded research year opportunities for students of all backgrounds.

Development of a Tool to Measure Student Perceptions of Equity and Inclusion in Medical Schools.

Importance: Creating an inclusive and equitable learning environment is a national priority. Nevertheless, data reflecting medical students' perception of the climate of equity and inclusion are limited. Objective: To develop and validate an instrument to measure students' perceptions of the climate of equity and inclusion in medical school using data collected annually by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Design, Setting, and Participants: The Promoting Diversity, Group Inclusion, and Equity tool was developed in 3 stages. A Delphi panel of 9 members identified survey items from preexisting AAMC data sources. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was performed on student responses to AAMC surveys to construct the tool, which underwent rigorous psychometric validation. Participants were undergraduate medical students at Liaison Committee on Medical Education-accredited medical schools in the US who completed the 2015 to 2019 AAMC Year 2 Questionnaire (Y2Q), the administrations of 2016 to 2020 AAMC Graduation Questionnaire (GQ), or both. Data were analyzed from August 2020 to November 2023. Exposures: Student race and ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Main Outcomes and Measures: Development and psychometric validation of the tool, including construct validity, internal consistency, and criterion validity. Results: Delphi panel members identified 146 survey items from the Y2Q and GQ reflecting students' perception of the climate of equity and inclusion, and responses to these survey items were obtained from 54 906 students for the Y2Q cohort (median [IQR] age, 24 [23-26] years; 29 208 [52.75%] were female, 11 389 [20.57%] were Asian, 4089 [7.39%] were multiracial, and 33 373 [60.28%] were White) and 61 998 for the GQ cohort (median [IQR] age, 27 [26-28] years; 30 793 [49.67%] were female, 13 049 [21.05%] were Asian, 4136 [6.67%] were multiracial, and 38 215 [61.64%] were White). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of student responses identified 8 factors for the Y2Q model (faculty role modeling; student empowerment; student fellowship; cultural humility; faculty support for students; fostering a collaborative and safe environment; discrimination: race, ethnicity, and gender; and discrimination: sexual orientation) and 5 factors for the GQ model (faculty role modeling; student empowerment; faculty support for students; discrimination: race, ethnicity, and gender; and discrimination: sexual orientation). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated acceptable model fit (root mean square error of approximation of 0.05 [Y2Q] and 0.06 [GQ] and comparative fit indices of 0.95 [Y2Q] and 0.94 [GQ]). Cronbach α for individual factors demonstrated internal consistency ranging from 0.69 to 0.92 (Y2Q) and 0.76 to 0.95 (GQ). Conclusions and Relevance: This study found that the new tool is a reliable and psychometrically valid measure of medical students' perceptions of equity and inclusion in the learning environment.

The medical licensing assessment will fall short of determining whether a UK medical graduate behaves ethically.

UK medical graduates will soon need to pass the medical licensing assessment, which assesses skills and knowledge in ethics using multiple choice questions (eg single best answer questions) and objective structured clinical examination. However, educational leaders have recognised that these methods lack the sophistication needed to accurately assess medical ethics. The reasons are two-fold. First, there may be a knowledge and practice gap in medical schools when it comes to preparing students for the assessment. To this end, this article shares peer advice about how best to use objective structured clinical examinations and single best answer questions for assessing medical ethics to help prepare students for the medical licensing assessment. Second, the design of the assessment is unlikely to adequately measure graduates' ethical values and behaviour in real world scenarios. Further work is needed to design assessments that are sophisticated enough to examine candidates' ethical reasoning and their actual behaviour.

Need assessment of medical school curriculum for MOOCs: perspectives of instructors and students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.

INTRODUCTION: Designing, developing, and implementing a course without assessing and prioritizing instructional needs may result in inefficiency due to the disregard for the actual needs of the target population. The present study aimed to determine and prioritize medical students' instructional needs regarding Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. METHODS: This survey study was carried out in three stages (2020-2021) using the Delphi technique. Purposive and snowball sampling methods were used to select the instructors. The students were selected through simple random sampling. The first round of the Delphi technique involved a questionnaire consisting of one open-ended question, completed by 49 basic/clinical faculty members and 47 senior medical students. In the second round, a 5-point Likert scale-based questionnaire was used to prioritize the instructional needs. The reliability of the questionnaire was verified by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. In the third round, a focus group was used. A total of six expert faculty members and one senior medical student were invited to the focus group session to prioritize the needs. Data were analyzed using Friedman's non-parametric ranking test in SPSS version 26. RESULTS: Ten instructional needs priorities were extracted, including common pharmacotherapies (antibiotics and narcotics), prescriptions, physiology, anatomy, physical examination, electrocardiography interpretation, radiography, computed tomography scans, serum electrolyte disorders, and cardiovascular and internal (endocrine and metabolic) diseases. The chi-squared calculated value (715.584) indicated a significant difference in the importance of the questionnaire's questions (P < 0.001). These questions did not have equal value, and the importance, from the respondent's point of view and the observed distribution of ranks, was not the output of a random factor. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study can be used to design MOOCs, revise instructional programs, and adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of general practitioners, which will, in turn, help meet the medical needs of the general population.

"It's Time to Do It, to Make It a Major Part of Medicine": Faculty Experience With a Shift Toward an Antioppressive Medical School Curriculum.

PURPOSE: Health inequities compel medical educators to transform curricula to prepare physicians to improve the health of diverse populations. This mandate requires curricular focus on antioppression, which is a change for faculty who learned and taught under a different paradigm. This study used the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) to explore faculty perceptions of and experiences with a shift to a curriculum that prioritizes antioppressive content and process. METHOD: In this qualitative study, authors interviewed faculty course directors and teachers at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine from March 2021 to January 2022. Questions addressed faculty experience and understanding regarding the curriculum shift toward antioppression, perceptions of facilitators and barriers to change, and their interactions with colleagues and learners about this change. Using the CBAM components as sensitizing concepts, the authors conducted thematic analysis. RESULTS: Sixteen faculty participated. Their perceptions of their experience with the first year of an antioppression curriculum initiative were characterized by 3 broad themes: (1) impetus for change, (2) personal experience with antioppressive curricular topics, and (3) strategies necessary to accomplish the change. Faculty described 3 driving forces for the shift toward antioppressive curricula: moral imperative, response to national and local events, and evolving culture of medicine. Despite broad alignment with the change, faculty expressed uncertainties on 3 subthemes: uncertainty about what is an antioppressive curriculum, the scientific perspective, and fear. Faculty also reflected on primary facilitators and barriers to accomplishing the change. CONCLUSIONS: The shift to an antioppressive curriculum compels faculty to increase their knowledge and skills and adopt a critical, self-reflective lens on the interplay of medicine and oppression. This study's findings can inform faculty development efforts and highlight curricular leadership and resources needed to support faculty through this type of curricular change.

Piloting a National Curricular Resource for the Transition to Surgical Residency: Characteristics of Participating Schools and Their Students.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the extent to which U.S. Liaison Committee of Medical Education (LCME)-accredited medical schools chose to participate in piloting a national curricular resource, the American College of Surgeons/Association of Program Directors in Surgery/Association of Surgical Education Resident Prep Curriculum ("ACS-surgery-prep curriculum"), and implications of such participation for student access nationally to this resource. DESIGN: We examined the significance of school-level differences in ACS-surgery-prep curriculum pilot participation and student-level differences in curriculum access based on medical school attended in bivariate analysis. SETTING: U.S. medical schools choosing to participate in the ACS-surgery-prep curriculum through 2021. Students graduating from U.S. LCME-accredited medical schools in 2020-2021 were invited to complete the Association of American Medical Colleges 2021 Graduation Questionnaire (GQ). PARTICIPANTS: Our study included data for 2569 students intending surgery specialties (16% of 16,353 2021 GQ respondents) from ACS-surgery-prep curriculum pilot and non-pilot schools. RESULTS: Of 148 medical schools attended by 2021 GQ respondents, 93 (63%) were identified as ACS-surgery-prep curriculum pilot schools. Pilot participation varied by school region, community-based designation, and research intensity (each p < 0.05) but not by ownership or transition to residency (TTR) course requirements (each p > 0.05). Of 2569 GQ respondents nationally intending surgery specialties, 1697 (66%) attended an ACS-surgery-prep curriculum pilot school; this proportion did not vary by gender or race/ethnicity (each p > 0.05) but varied by students' school TTR course requirements (p < 0.001). Findings were similar among the 1059 students intending general surgery specialties specifically (41% of all 2569 students intending surgery specialties). CONCLUSIONS: Many U.S. LCME-accredited medical schools piloted this national TTR surgery curriculum. School-level characteristics associated with pilot participation can inform outreach efforts to encourage the participation of interested schools in piloting this TTR resource. With this curriculum distribution model, we observed no gender or racial/ethnic disparities in curriculum access nationally among students intending surgery specialties.

Gender Inequality Improvement in Medical School Admissions in Japan.

Purpose: To investigate the effects of gender discrimination in Japan's medical school admission process and to assess whether the situation has improved since the disclosure of such discrimination in 2018. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using secondary data from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. The proportions of male and female applicants vis-à-vis all successful candidates admitted from 2016 to 2021 were analyzed; four medical schools were found to be systematically guilty of discriminatory admission practices. Acceptance rate ratios (ARRs) were estimated, and difference-in-differences (DID) analysis was used to examine the differences in ARRs between the two groups-the 4 and 75 medical schools that were and were not reported, respectively-in the predisclosure (2016-2018) and postdisclosure (2019-2021) periods. Results: Female applicants were subjected to discriminatory admission practices at the four reported medical schools in the predisclosure period. However, postdisclosure, those four medical schools had higher female than male acceptance rates in all 3 years. DID analysis revealed a statistically significant estimated average treatment effect on the treated of 0.25148 (95% confidence interval [0.00455-0.49840]), indicating a 0.25-point increase in ARRs relative to the other 75 medical schools. Conclusions: Discriminatory practices against female applicants have decreased since the disclosure in 2018, with the acceptance rate of female students exceeding that of male students for the first time in 2021. In response to these findings, we propose recommendations to further promote gender equality in medicine.

Conflict of interest policies at Australian medical schools.

BACKGROUND: Pharmaceutical industry exposure is widespread during medical training and may affect education and clinical decision-making. Medical faculties' conflict of interest (COI) policies help to limit this exposure and protect students against commercial influence. AIMS: Our aim was to investigate the prevalence, content and strength of COI policies at Australian medical schools and changes since a previous assessment conducted in 2009. METHODS: We identified policies by searching medical school and host university websites in January 2021, and contacted deans to identify any missed policies. We applied a modified version of a scorecard developed in previous studies to examine the content of COI policies. All data were coded in duplicate. COI policies were rated on a scale from 0 (no policy) to 2 (strong policy) across 11 items per medical school. Oversight mechanisms and sanctions were also assessed, and current policies were compared with the 2009 study. RESULTS: Of 155 potentially relevant policies, 153 were university-wide and two were specific to medical schools. No policies covered sales representatives, on-site sponsored education or free samples. Oversight of consultancies had improved substantially, with 76% of schools requiring preapproval. Disclosure policies, while usually present, were weak, with no public disclosure required. CONCLUSION: We found little indication that Australian medical students are protected from commercial influence on medical education, and there has been limited COI policy development within the past decade. More attention is needed to ensure the independence of medical education in Australia.

Moving Beyond the Dichotomous Assessment of Professionalism in the Internal Medicine Clerkship: Results of a National Survey of Clerkship Directors.

PURPOSE: This study examines how internal medicine clerkship faculty and leadership conceptualize professionalism and professional behaviors and attitudes, identifies whether and how faculty use metrics to assess professionalism and factor it into clerkship grades, and describes barriers that prevent faculty from feeling prepared to support the development of professional behaviors in students. METHOD: The Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine opened a call for thematic survey section proposals to its physician-faculty members, blind-reviewed all submissions, and selected 4 based on internal medicine clinical clerkship training experience relevance. The survey launched on October 5 and closed on December 7, 2021. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Of 137 core clerkship directors (CDs) at Liaison Committee on Medical Education-accredited medical schools, 103 (75.2%) responded to the survey. Of 102 respondents (1 nonrespondent), 84 (82.4%) identified professional behavior lapses in involvement and 60 (58.8%) identified introspection lapses. Of 103 respondents, 97 (94.2%) reported that their clerkships ask clinical faculty and residents to formally evaluate professionalism, and 64 (62.1%) reported that they factor professionalism assessments into final clerkship grades. CDs reported multiple barriers to addressing professionalism directly with students, including logistical barriers, professionalism assessment subjectivity concerns, and the possible adverse effect of an unprofessional label for students. CONCLUSIONS: Professionalism assessment and remediation in medical education currently center on a deficit model that seeks to identify and remediate professionalism lapses, rather than a developmental model that seeks to nurture growth. This dichotomous characterization of behaviors as professional or unprofessional limits assessment and can adversely affect the learning environment. The authors propose a shift to a developmental model that considers professionalism as a continuous process parallel to the acquisition of clinical skills and medical knowledge.

Disparities in Promotion and Retention Rates Among Underrepresented in Medicine Faculty in U.S. Ophthalmology Departments.

PURPOSE: This study examines the rates and trends of faculty promotions within the field of ophthalmology, with comparative emphasis on the rates of promotion among underrepresented in medicine (URiM) faculty. DESIGN: A retrospective panel study was conducted using the Association of American Medical Colleges Faculty Roster database. METHODS: We used the Association of American Medical Colleges Faculty Roster data to assess trends in academic faculty promotions within U.S. ophthalmology departments. Full-time assistant and associate professors appointed between 2000 and 2010 were included in the analysis, and tracked until November 2021 to determine promotion rates. Pearson χ2 and Fisher exact tests were used to evaluate differences in promotion and retention rates based on gender, race and ethnicity, advanced degree, and tenure status. RESULTS: The demographics of 1436 assistant and 680 associate faculty members were obtained for analysis through the Association of American Medical Colleges. Black faculty had lower promotion rates when compared with White faculty (20% vs 37%, P < .001). Faculty with MD and PhD degrees demonstrated higher promotion rates than faculty with MD degrees alone (59% vs 36%, P < .001). In addition, faculty not on tenure track had lower rates of promotion than those on tenure track (35% vs 48%, P < .001). With respect to faculty retention, among assistant and associate professors combined, Black faculty and faculty without tenure track appointments were more likely to leave academic medicine (46% vs 33%, P < .001) and (36% vs 27%, P < .001), respectively. CONCLUSION: In this study, promotion rates varied significantly by race/ethnicity. Specifically, Black faculty had lower rates of promotion and retention in academic medicine. These findings underscore the need to explore and implement strategies and policies to address equity in promotion rates and retention of URiM faculty within academic ophthalmology.

Why Are There So Few Women Medical School Deans? Debunking the Myth That Shorter Tenures Drive Disparities.

PURPOSE: Gender disparities among the senior echelons of academic medicine are striking and persistent. The role of medical school dean has been particularly immune to gender diversity, and limited prior research identified women's shorter decanal tenures as a potential driver. The authors assessed gender differences in tenure length of deanships in the current era to elucidate this finding. METHOD: From October 2020 to June 2021, the authors collected information about medical school deanships that were held from January 1, 2006, to June 30, 2020. All schools were members of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The authors collected data from online public records and augmented their findings via direct outreach to medical schools. They used time-to-event analyses before and after adjustment for interim vs permanent status of the initial appointment, school ownership (public/private), and school size to assess for gender differences in length of deanship tenure during the study period. The unit of analysis was deanships, and the primary outcome was length of deanships measured in years. RESULTS: Authors included data on 528 deanships. Women held 91 (17%) of these terms. Men held the majority of permanent deanships (n = 352 [85%]). A greater percentage of the deanships held by women were interim only (n = 27 [30%]) compared with men (n = 85 [20%]). In unadjusted and adjusted analyses, there were no significant gender differences in length of deanship tenures. CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of appointments of AAMC-member medical school deans from 2006 to 2020 revealed that women have remained in their deanships as long as their male counterparts. The myth about women deans' shorter longevity should no longer be promulgated. Academic medicine should consider novel solutions to addressing women's persistent underrepresentation in the dean role, including employing the gender proportionality principle used in the business and legal communities.