The Council of Faculty and Academic Societies (CFAS) comprises representatives from medical schools and professional societies who guide the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Given the AAMC's stated mission to improve diversity and inclusion, we used gender-related representation on journal editorial boards as a proxy for evaluating CFAS member societies' commitments to equity. From screenshots of journal mastheads ( = 44) collected June 3-6, 2019, individuals were categorized by editorial position.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecognition awards from professional medical societies play an important role in physicians' career advancement. Our aim was to evaluate the gender representation of award recipients from gastroenterology and hepatology societies. We analyzed the lists of award recipients from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, American College of Gastroenterology, American Gastroenterological Association, and American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and determined the gender of these award recipients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study evaluated Women Physiatry Facebook group members' perceptions of the value of an online community. The authors hypothesized that members would find the group protective against burnout, and early career participants would be more likely to use the group for education and networking. This was a cross-sectional survey study of women physicians in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation primarily in the United States.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdvances in genetic technology have allowed for the development of multiplex panels that can test for hundreds of genetic disorders at the same time; these large panels are referred to as expanded carrier screening. This process can screen couples for far more conditions than the gene-by-gene approach used with traditional carrier screening; however, although expanded carrier screening has been promoted as an efficient means of detecting many more disorders, the complexities of genetic sequencing raise substantial challenges and concerns. In our practice, we have seen a number of complex cases in which only attention to detail on the part of thorough genetic counselors allowed identification of misclassified variants that could have resulted in significant patient harm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Preschool Feelings Checklist (PFC) is a 16-item parent report measure of depressive symptoms in young children. However, data on its reliability and validity are limited. We examined the internal consistency and convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of the PFC in an unselected community sample of 490 3-year old children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patients with severe asthma often require oral corticosteroid (OCS) treatment. Clinical trials have demonstrated that mepolizumab can reduce OCS dependence, but real-world data are limited.
Objective: To evaluate the impact of mepolizumab on OCS use, asthma exacerbations, and asthma exacerbation-related costs in a real-world setting.
As light propagates along a waveguide, a fraction of the field can be reflected by Rayleigh scatterers. In high-quality-factor whispering-gallery-mode microresonators, this intrinsic backscattering is primarily caused by either surface or bulk material imperfections. For several types of microresonator-based experiments and applications, minimal backscattering in the cavity is of critical importance, and thus, the ability to suppress backscattering is essential.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Phys Med Rehabil
June 2021
The Association of Academic Physiatrists convened a Women's Task Force in 2016, under the leadership of then Association of Academic Physiatrists President Gerard Francisco, MD, to evaluate data and metrics pertaining to the representation and inclusion of female physiatrists in the society. An initial published report focused on a retrospective analysis of data in categories such as leadership, conference presentations, and recognition awards. The findings, which highlighted areas in which the Association of Academic Physiatrists had been successful in supporting gender equity as well as areas in which female physiatrists were underrepresented, provided a base from which to strategically focus on closing gaps in representation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThousands of youth suffering from acquired brain injury or other early-life neurological disease live, mature, and learn with only limited communication and interaction with their world. Such cognitively capable children are ideal candidates for brain-computer interfaces (BCI). While BCI systems are rapidly evolving, a fundamental gap exists between technological innovators and the patients and families who stand to benefit.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Sex and race/ethnicity disparities persist in academic Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R). This study contributes to the current body of knowledge by demonstrating changes in academic PM&R by sex and race/ethnicity in multiple categories over a 12-year period.
Objective: To evaluate workforce disparities in academic PM&R by measuring sex and race/ethnicity diversity in academic degree, rank, and tenure status.
Several studies have reported that individuals with chronic depression have higher rates of depressive disorders, and particularly chronic depression, in their first-degree relatives, compared to those with non-chronic (episodic) major depression. In addition, a few studies have suggested that offspring of parents with chronic depression have elevated rates of depression and other psychopathology. Most of this work uses the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which defines chronicity as persistence for at least 2 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBroadband optical frequency combs are extremely versatile tools for precision spectroscopy, ultrafast ranging, as channel generators for telecom networks, and for many other metrology applications. Here, we demonstrate that the optical spectrum of a soliton microcomb generated in a microresonator can be extended by bichromatic pumping: one laser with a wavelength in the anomalous dispersion regime of the microresonator generates a bright soliton microcomb while another laser in the normal dispersion regime both compensates the thermal effect of the microresonator and generates a repetition-rate-synchronized second frequency comb. Numerical simulations agree well with experimental results and reveal that a bright optical pulse from the second pump is passively formed in the normal dispersion regime and trapped by the primary soliton.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To investigate the contribution of financial stress to physician burnout and satisfaction among women physiatrists. Relationships among education debt and compensation with demographic, sociologic, and workplace factors were also assessed.
Design: This was a cross-sectional survey study of women physicians in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) in the United States.
Importance: Disparities in representation between sexes have been shown at multiple career stages in medicine despite increasing representation in the overall physician workforce.
Objective: To assess sex representation of applicants to the Canadian R-1 entry match for postgraduate training programs from 1995 to 2019, comparing distribution between different specialties as well as applied vs matched applicants.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional analysis of aggregate data provided by the Canadian Resident Matching Service between 1995 and 2019 analyzed aggregate data for the Canadian R-1 residency match from 1995 through 2019.
Our aim was to evaluate differences in reported citizenship tasks among women physicians due to personal or demographic factors and time spent performing those tasks for work. Attendees of a national women physician's leadership conference (Brave Enough Women Physicians Continuing Medical Education Conference) replied to a survey using Qualtrics (2019 Qualtrics, Provo, UT), in September 2019. Data collected included age, race, ethnicity, training level, medical practice, specialty, current annual total compensation, educational debt, and number of children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The limited effectiveness of endocardial catheter ablation (CA) for persistent and long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) treatment led to the development of a minimally invasive epicardial/endocardial ablation approach (Hybrid Convergent) to achieve a more comprehensive lesion set with durable transmural lesions. The multicenter randomized controlled CONVERGE trial (Convergence of Epicardial and Endocardial Ablation for the Treatment of Symptomatic Persistent AF) evaluated the safety of Hybrid Convergent and compared its effectiveness to CA for persistent and long-standing persistent AF treatment.
Methods: One-hundred fifty-three patients were randomized 2:1 to Hybrid Convergent versus CA.
While the role of the London Hospital in delineating diseases of the nervous system is widely accepted, its role in developing the speciality of spinal injuries in the United Kingdom has not been acknowledged. The pioneering efforts of Henry Head and George Riddoch provided the foundation for the successful treatment of patients with spinal injuries. Julian Holland-Hibbert, a trustee of the London Hospital and himself a paraplegic, by his magnificent unselfish effort made sure that patients with a spinal injury could live independent, fulfilled lives in society.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To determine whether women have been equitably represented among plenary speakers at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting by counting and categorizing speakers and comparing outcomes to AAN membership and US neurology workforce data.
Methods: Lists of plenary speakers between 1958 and 2019 (62 years) were obtained from the AAN. The primary outcome measures were numbers and proportions of men and women in aggregate and among physicians.
Guidelines promote high quality cancer care. Rehabilitation recommendations in oncology guidelines have not been characterized and may provide insight to improve integration of rehabilitation into oncology care. This report was developed as a part of the World Health Organization (WHO) Rehabilitation 2030 initiative to identify rehabilitation-specific recommendations in guidelines for oncology care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRacial health disparities continue to disproportionately affect Black persons in the United States. Black individuals also have increased risk of worse outcomes associated with social determinants of health including socioeconomic factors such as income, education, and employment. This narrative review included studies originally spanning a period of approximately one decade (December 2009-December 2019) from online databases and with subsequent updates though June 2020.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF