Dataset Information

Sex differences in authorship in cardiothoracic surgery during the early coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic negatively impacted cardiothoracic (CT) surgery, with changes in clinical, academic, and personal responsibilities. We hypothesized that the pandemic may disproportionately impact female academic CT surgeons, accentuating preexisting sex disparities. This study assessed sex differences in authorship of 2 major CT surgery journals during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

All accepted submissions to The Annals of Thoracic Surgery and The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery between April and August of 2019 and the same period in 2020 were reviewed. Article type and author characteristics were obtained from the journals. Author sex was predicted using a validated multinational database (Genderize.io) and verified with authors' institutional and public professional profiles.

Results

In total, 1106 submissions were accepted during the 2019 period, whereas 900 articles (18.6% decrease) were accepted during the same period in 2020. Original research articles comprised 33.3% of the 2019 articles but only 4.9% of the 2020 articles. Female authors contributed to 39.3% (23.1% original research and 16.2% nonoriginal articles) and 29.4% (3.3% original research and 26.1% nonoriginal articles) of articles during the 2019 and 2020 periods, respectively. This represents a marked change in the type of articles that female authors contributed to.

Conclusions

Early on during the COVID-19 pandemic, the type of articles accepted, and authorship demographic changed. There was a decrease in contribution of female-authored CT surgery articles submitted to both journals, especially for original research. Future research will elucidate the long-term impact of the pandemic on sex disparities in academic productivity.

Video abstract

SUBMITTER: Elfaki LA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9150085 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Sex differences in authorship in cardiothoracic surgery during the early coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Elfaki Lina A LA Luc Jessica G Y JGY Antonoff Mara B MB Cooke David T DT Arora Rakesh C RC Stamp Nikki N Varghese Thomas K TK Ouzounian Maral M

JTCVS open 20220513

<h4>Objectives</h4>The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic negatively impacted cardiothoracic (CT) surgery, with changes in clinical, academic, and personal responsibilities. We hypothesized that the pandemic may disproportionately impact female academic CT surgeons, accentuating preexisting sex disparities. This study assessed sex differences in authorship of 2 major CT surgery journals during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic.<h4>Methods</h4>All accepted submissions to <i>The An ...[more]

PMID: 35664693

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Project description:PurposeCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had far reaching impacts on all aspects of the healthcare system, including plastic surgery training. Due to reduction in the number of elective surgery cases and need for social distancing, plastic surgery education has shifted from the operating room to the virtual learning environment. Although these changes have been qualitatively described, the authors present a quantitative analysis of plastic surgery training changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study has identified residents' greatest impediments and inquired about suggestions for further improvements. Our goal is to help residency programs through the COVID-19 pandemic era and contribute to future guidelines when residency education encounters additional unexpected changes.MethodsAn institutional review board approved anonymous survey using Qualtrics was forwarded on April 23, 2020 to US plastic surgery program directors to be distributed to plastic surgery residents and fellows. Questions centered on the impact of COVID-19 on residents' well-being, education and career plans results were collected for data analysis. Residents were given the option to be in a raffle to win a $50 amazon gift card. Completion of the survey was both anonymous and voluntary.ResultsA total of 69 trainees responded (52 integrated residents and 17 independent fellows) from 18 states. Fifty-one percent were male and 49% were female. Fifty-six percent of trainees plan to complete a fellowship program after graduation, 31% will join private practice. Nine percent of trainees reported changes in their postgraduation plans due to the pandemic, 67% were senior trainees. Of those whose goals were affected by COVID-19 pandemic, 56% opted to pursue additional fellowship training. They described reduced operative exposure and cancelations of elective surgeries (50%), the limited availability of private practice jobs (37.5%), and financial reasons (12.5%) for their decision. Twelve percent reported being concerned about not meeting the necessary requirements to finish their residency and graduate on time. Seventy-six percent of trainees expressed concerns about the health and safety of themselves, family and loved ones. Forty-nine percent of trainees reported increased levels of stress since the onset of the pandemic. Ninety-seven percent of trainees reported having reduction in their operative time during the COVID-19 pandemic. They utilized their nonoperative time for online education modules (84%), educational readings (82%), and research (80%). Plastic surgery trainees learned about national webinars through emails from professional society (83%), co-resident/fellow (77%), program director emails (74%), and social media (22%). Webinars attended were mostly through virtual platform modalities, among which Zoom and Webex were the most preferred. Less interactions with colleagues and faculty was the biggest barrier to adopting virtual conferences. Despite this, 72% agreed that having grand rounds, didactics and journal clubs online increased attendance. Additionally, 88% of respondents expressed interests in attending professional society sponsored virtual grand rounds in the future.ConclusionsResults from our survey demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of plastic surgery residents have had reductions in operative times and widespread curriculum changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. These recent changes have increased residents' stress levels and adversity affected their future career plans. Additionally, COVID-19 has heralded an increase in virtual conferences and learning modules. Plastic surgery trainees expressed a preference for virtual educational platforms and interest in continuing virtual didactics in the future. This may irreversibly change the landscape of future plastic surgery training.

Dataset Information

Sex differences in authorship in cardiothoracic surgery during the early coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Video abstract

Publications

Sex differences in authorship in cardiothoracic surgery during the early coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

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