Analysis of H-index in Assessing Gender Differences in Academic Rank and Leadership in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the United States and Canada

Objective (1) Establish potential gender differences in academic physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) faculty across the United States and Canada. (2) Evaluate associations between physician gender, leadership position, and research productivity. Design PM&R programs enlisted in Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database (FREIDA) (n=72) and Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) (n=9) were searched for academic faculty with MD degrees to generate a database of gender and academic profiles. Bibliometric data were collected using Elsevier's Scopus and analyzed by Stata v14.2. Results Of 1045 faculty meeting the inclusion criteria, 653 were men and 392 were women. Men were found in greater numbers across all academic ranks, with professors as most conspicuous (79.14%), and held a majority (85.54%) of leadership positions. The study's prediction model assessed for gender differences in academic rank and leadership roles and found that odds of men having higher h-index as 0.78 (95%CI: 0.24-0.87), indicating that women were not significantly inferior in academic performance. Conclusion A significantly greater number of men make up PM&R faculty in all academic ranks and leadership positions. H-index based on gender and adjusted for covariates is comparable between men and women, suggesting that more complex, multifactorial issues are likely influencing the gender differences. Corresponding Author: Faisal Khosa, MD, MBA, FFRRCSI, FRCPC, Address: Department of Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver General Hospital, 899 12th Avenue W, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V5Z 1M9. Tel: 1-604-358-3651; Fax: 1-604-875-4319; Email: fkhosa@hotmail.com Disclosures: A summarized poster presentation of this study was performed during the 2017 Federation of Medical Women of Canada (FMWC) Conference in Ottawa and the 6th Annual Action Global Health Network Conference at University of Ottawa. There was no commercial funding for this study. Dr. Khosa is the recipient of the Canadian Association of Radiologists/Canadian Radiological Foundation Leadership Scholarship (2017) and Vancouver Coastal Health Leadership Award. The authors have no other relevant disclosures. Conflict of Interest: The authors have declared that there is no conflict of interest. Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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