Hello everybody, my name is Varun Shah and I'm a fourth year medical student at The Ohio State University. I would like to thank the AANS for giving me the opportunity to present on our research study titled Women in Neurosurgery, Positive Recruitment Trends Since the 2000s of Gender Disparities and Resident Attrition Rates Remain. I have nothing to disclose. So like most surgical specialties, there is not many women in neurosurgery. In 2016, women made up only 16.1% of neurosurgery residents, and only 6.1% of ABNS certified neurosurgeons were women. The literature has identified women as more likely to leave neurosurgery than men, highlighting the importance of this topic and need to identify how we can keep these talented physicians in our field. Over a 50 year period from 1964 to 2013, there was a 2.1% attrition rate among neurosurgery residency graduates who were women. Among residents, women were more likely to undergo attrition than men in both the 1990s and the 2000s. This study aims to identify if this trend holds true for this past decade, with a particular focus on 2011 onwards. The AANS database of residents matching from 2000 to 2017 was analyzed. Trainees with incomplete dates listed and international trainees were excluded. Trainees with unexpectedly short training lengths were analyzed for attrition. A Google search was utilized to determine alternative career paths after attrition. Our main outcome was the attrition rates in men and women residents before and after the 2011 duty hour restrictions. Over this 18 year period, women only made up about 15% of the 3,653 matched individuals in neurosurgery. Here on this slide, you can see figures from the results presented on the previous slide. Figure 1 shows a statistically significant positive trend in each subsequent neurosurgical class, showing more women matriculating in each class during this study period. Figure 2 shows the percent of men and women undergoing attrition each year. 5.2% of women underwent attrition from neurosurgery residency compared to 2.4% of men. This was statistically significant. Figure 3 shows the majority of attrition occurred during the first three years of residency, regardless of gender. After 2011, significantly more women matched into neurosurgery residency compared to before. There was no significant difference in inter-program transfer rate in either gender before or after 2011. This table shows the path following attrition in both women and men. The most common specialties chosen were neurology, anesthesia, and radiology. Those individuals whose career paths could not be identified through a Google search were classified as unknown. In conclusion, women have increasing representation in neurosurgery since 2011, but there was no decrease seen in attrition rates. This shows that attention needs to be put in the retention of women in neurosurgery through earlier exposure to the field and more women mentors in neurosurgery. Thank you so much for your time, and thank you to the AANS for providing us with their database of residents for us to conduct our research.

women in neurosurgery

gender disparities

resident attrition rates

retaining talented female physicians

neurosurgery residency