Study Finds Large Gender Gap in Grand Rounds Speakers in Academic Medicine

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have published a study which presents evidence that women are less likely than men to be chosen as speakers during grand rounds, the academic mainstay of expert-delivered lectures used to share patient-care guidelines and cutting-edge research within clinical departments.

The data showed that while women are 47 percent of all medical students, 46 percent of medical residents and 36 percent of all medical school faculty, women were only 26 percent of ground rounds speakers.

Julie Boiko, a pediatric resident at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the study while in medical school at the University of Pittsburgh, notes that “the people at the podiums do not resemble the people in the audience. While gender representation and equality in medicine has been an important area of student discussion in recent years, this is the first time we have data to support that there may be a gender bias in speaker selection at academic grand rounds.”

Dr. Boiko holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in biology from Stanford University and a medical doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh.

The study, “Representation of Women Among Academic Grand Rounds Speakers,” was published on the website of JAMA Internal Medicine. It may be accessed here.