Background/Purpose: Rheumatology program directors (PDs) play a vital role in developing, improving and overseeing the fellowship programs. Although PDs have an important role to play in the education and training of future rheumatologists, there is paucity of literature about the educational and demographic background of the current PD workforce in the United States (US). The main aim of the study was to analyze the demographic variables, educational background, and scholarly achievements of rheumatology fellowship PDs in the US. 

Methods: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) website was accessed to obtain a list of all accredited rheumatology fellowships, and PDs of all programs were included. Publicly available sources including individual program/institutional websites, HealthGrades^© and Doximity^© websites, and the Scopus^© database were accessed. Each PD’s age, gender, educational background, appointment age, interval between fellowship completion and appointment as PD, additional degrees, and scholarly metrics (publications, citations, h-index) were recorded. Nonparametric statistics including Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare differences between groups and P-value of < 0.05 was considered significant. 

Results: A total of 121 PDs were included in the study, of which 61 (50.4%) were females.  The average age was 52.69±9.17 years (median 52, range 33-). There was no statistical difference in of male versus female PDs (p=0.112). The average age at appointment was 46.06±7.9 years (range 32-71) and mean tenure duration was 6.53±5.71 years (median 4.8, range 0.17-27.42). International medical graduates comprised 42 (34.7%) of the PDs, with the most common country of international medical school being India (13, 10.7%).  Six (5%) received a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree. The mean (and median) number of publications, citations and h-index for PDs were 31.98±45.47 (median 14), 1344.21±3035.96 (median 384) and 11.94±13.05 (median 8). There was no statistical difference between male and female PDs with regards to distribution of publications (p=0.108), citations (p=0.204) and h-index (p=0.12). There was no statistical difference between PDs from American and international medical schools with regards to distribution of publications (p=0.261), citations (p=0.367) and h-index (p=0.337). 

Conclusion: Rheumatology fellowship PD positions demonstrate gender equality with 50% being female, and with no significant difference in scholarly metrics between male and female PDs. International medical graduates comprise thirty five percent, a sizeable minority.  This study provides a single snapshot of the current rheumatology PD workforce in the US in 2020, and will be helpful for those interested in an academic career, with a focus on medical education. Furthermore, this study will serve as a baseline for future comparative studies.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/rheumatology-fellowship-program-directors-in-the-united-states-analysis-of-demographics-educational-and-scholarly-achievements/