Academic Activities of Female Neurosurgeons in All Branch Meetings of the Japan Neurosurgical Society.

This study aims to evaluate the academic activities of female neurosurgeons at all branch meetings of the Japan Neurosurgical Society and identify related issues they encountered. The programs of all seven branch meetings of the Japan Neurosurgical Society (Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kinki, Chugoku/Shikoku, and Kyushu) were used to determine the number of presentations and chairpersons by sex. The covered period was from January 2008 to December 2020, which was available for viewing during the survey. Of note, only the Kinki branch used data from January 2008 to December 2019. The Neurologia Medico-chirurgica (NMC), the journal of the Japan Neurosurgical Society, was also reviewed to identify publication achievements during the same period. In all seven branches, the percentage of presentations given by female physicians increased from 7.9% in 2008 to 9.6% in 2020 (p < 0.05).Conversely, the percentage of female chairpersons in all branch meetings did not change over time and it was significantly lower (1.1%) than that of female presenters (7.9%) for all branch meetings combined in over 13 years (p < 0.01). In the NMC, the number of articles with female physicians as first authors did not increase or decrease over the years. We conclude that efforts to smoothly promote female neurosurgeons as chairpersons and increase the number of female first authors are necessary to facilitate their academic activities.

A Questionnaire to Assess the Challenges Faced by Women Who Quit Working as Full-Time Neurosurgeons.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze why women quit full-time employment as neurosurgeons and to discuss the conditions required for their reinstatement. METHODS: We asked 94 core hospitals providing training programs in the board certification system adopted by the Japan Neurosurgical Society to indicate the total number and present status of women in their department and to send our anonymous questionnaire to women who had formerly worked as full-time neurosurgeons. The questionnaire consisted of closed and open questions on their reasons for quitting as full-time neurosurgeons. RESULTS: Among 427 women evaluated, 72 (17%) had quit full-time employment as neurosurgeons. Twenty-one women who had quit 3-21 years after starting their neurosurgery careers responded to the questionnaire, including 17 board-certified neurosurgeons, 11 individuals with master's degrees, and 16 mothers. Their main reasons for quitting full-time work were difficulty in balancing their neurosurgical career and motherhood (52%) and the physical burden (38%). At the time of quitting, only 2 units (5%) had a career counseling system for women. Two thirds of participants might resume full-time work as neurosurgeons in the future. Their support system during pregnancy and the child-raising period, and understanding of male bosses and colleagues were identified as the key themes. CONCLUSIONS: The Japan Neurosurgical Society could facilitate supportive environments for women in neurosurgery by enhancing adequate childcare services, changing the work style of full-time neurosurgeons to incorporate diverse working styles, shorter working hours, understanding of their bosses and colleagues, and a career counseling system.

Fever screening during the influenza (H1N1-2009) pandemic at Narita International Airport, Japan.

BACKGROUND: Entry screening tends to start with a search for febrile international passengers, and infrared thermoscanners have been employed for fever screening in Japan. We aimed to retrospectively assess the feasibility of detecting influenza cases based on fever screening as a sole measure. METHODS: Two datasets were collected at Narita International Airport during the 2009 pandemic. The first contained confirmed influenza cases (n = 16) whose diagnosis took place at the airport during the early stages of the pandemic, and the second contained a selected and suspected fraction of passengers (self-reported or detected by an infrared thermoscanner; n = 1,049) screened from September 2009 to January 2010. The sensitivity of fever (38.0 °C) for detecting H1N1-2009 was estimated, and the diagnostic performances of the infrared thermoscanners in detecting hyperthermia at cut-off levels of 37.5 °C, 38.0 °C and 38.5 °C were also estimated. RESULTS: The sensitivity of fever for detecting H1N1-2009 cases upon arrival was estimated to be 22.2% (95% confidence interval: 0, 55.6) among nine confirmed H1N1-2009 cases, and 55.6% of the H1N1-2009 cases were under antipyretic medications upon arrival. The sensitivity and specificity of the infrared thermoscanners in detecting hyperthermia ranged from 50.8-70.4% and 63.6-81.7%, respectively. The positive predictive value appeared to be as low as 37.3-68.0%. CONCLUSIONS: The sensitivity of entry screening is a product of the sensitivity of fever for detecting influenza cases and the sensitivity of the infrared thermoscanners in detecting fever. Given the additional presence of confounding factors and unrestricted medications among passengers, reliance on fever alone is unlikely to be feasible as an entry screening measure.

Effects of methylmercury on neurodevelopment in Japanese children in relation to the Madeiran study.

OBJECTIVES: A cross-sectional study was carried out to assess the effects of methylmercury exposure on neurodevelopment in Japanese children, in relation to the Madeiran cross-sectional study, and to estimate benchmark dose (BMD) levels using the data of two studies. METHODS: Mercury levels in hair samples obtained from 327 Japanese mothers and their 7-year-old children, and methylmercury levels in the umbilical cord, were determined. Neurodevelopmental examinations, including the brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP), were performed on the children. RESULTS: The medians of hair mercury were 1.63 (0.11-6.86) mug/g for mothers and 1.65 (0.35-6.32) mug/g for children, and a significant correlation was seen between the hair mercury levels in mothers and children. The maternal hair mercury was significantly correlated with the methylmercury in the umbilical cords obtained from 49 children. In 210 children whose mothers had not changed their dietary habits since pregnancy, most of the neurodevelopmental variables were not significantly related to hair mercury levels. The BAEP latencies were significantly shorter in the Japanese children than in the 113 Madeiran 7-year-old children, whose mothers had hair mercury of 1.12-54.5 (median 10.9) mug/g. Significant relationships between the maternal hair mercury level and BAEP latencies (peaks III and V, and interpeak I-III) were found only in the merged data of Japanese and Madeiran children. When the lower 95% confidence limit of BMD (BMDL) was calculated, the BMDLs of mercury exposure for BAEP latencies in the merged data were between 6.9 and 10.5 mug/g, and lower than those in the Madeiran children. CONCLUSIONS: It is suggested that Japanese children may ingest similar doses per body weight of methylmercury to their mothers. If maternal hair mercury was used as a proxy for mercury exposure at birth, no significant dose-effect associations with the BAEP latencies were observed in Japanese children with exposure levels below 6.9 mug/g of hair mercury, but only when higher-level exposures from Madeiran children were included. The BMDL was lower for the merged data than for Madeiran children alone.