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. 2022 Aug 16;29(9):1593-1606.
doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocac101.

Assessing perceived effectiveness of career development efforts led by the women in American Medical Informatics Association Initiative

Duo Helen Wei  1 , Polina V Kukhareva  2 , Donghua Tao  3 , Margarita Sordo  4 , Deepti Pandita  5 , Prerna Dua  6 , Imon Banerjee  7 , Joanna Abraham  8
Affiliations

Assessing perceived effectiveness of career development efforts led by the women in American Medical Informatics Association Initiative

Duo Helen Wei et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. .

Abstract

Objective: We sought to ascertain perceived factors affecting women's career development efforts in the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and to provide recommendations for improvements.

Materials and methods: Data were collected using a 27-item survey administered via the AMIA newsletter and other social channels. Survey questions comprised 3 demographics, 15 Likert-scale, and 9 open-ended items. Likert-scale responses were summarized across respondent ages, career stages, and career domains, and open-ended responses were thematically analyzed.

Results: We received survey responses from 109 AMIA women members. Our findings demonstrate that AMIA had made strides in promoting career development, and the most effective AMIA efforts included social events (83%), panel discussions (80%), and scientific sessions (79%). However, despite these efforts, women members perceived that gender-specific challenges persisted within AMIA, and recognized the need for increased networking opportunities (96%), raising awareness of gender-specific challenges (95%), and encouraging gender proportional representation in leadership (92%).

Discussion: International and national biomedical informatics professional communities have put forth efforts to address gender-specific issues in career development. Yet, our study identified that some of these, including the deep-rooted gender power hierarchy and bias, are still perceived as profound in AMIA.

Conclusion: Even though existing career development efforts for women are highly effective, important perceived gender-specific career development issues require further attention and investigation to improve existing AMIA activities.

Keywords: AMIA; biomedical informatics; career development; equity; gender; professional organization; women.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Effectiveness of WIA career development events. Note: Responses of 4 and 5 on Likert scale were considered as “effective” for the career development efforts.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Effectiveness of WIA leadership development actions. Note: Responses of 4 and 5 on Likert scale were considered as “effective” for the career development efforts.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Career obstacles for women in AMIA.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Unmet needs for women in AMIA.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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