Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Mar 1;10(3):290-294.
doi: 10.1001/jamacardio.2024.4255.

Representation of Women Among Cardiology Grand Rounds Speakers in the United States

Ersilia M DeFilippis  1 , Supriya Muppala  2 , Gurleen Kaur  3 , Jessica H Huston  4 , Robert A Harrington  5 , Quinn Capers 4th  6 , Pamela S Douglas  7 , Nadim Mahmud  8 , Nosheen Reza  2
Affiliations

Representation of Women Among Cardiology Grand Rounds Speakers in the United States

Ersilia M DeFilippis et al. JAMA Cardiol. .

Abstract

Importance: Women are underrepresented in leadership positions in cardiology. Institutional grand rounds (GR) are platforms through which faculty can gain professional exposure and access to career development opportunities. The gender diversity of invited cardiology GR speakers has not been investigated.

Objective: To examine the representation of women among cardiology GR speakers in the United States.

Design, setting, and participants: This cross-sectional study reviewed all 626 internal medicine residency training program websites in the American Medical Association's FRIEDA directory to identify publicly available records of cardiology GR. Grand rounds from September 1997 through December 2022 were included; GR with more than 1 speaker and trainee-led case conferences were excluded.

Exposures: Grand rounds speaker gender.

Main outcomes and measures: Data on GR topic focus, speaker gender, and academic rank were collected.

Results: A total of 3806 GR lectures at 42 institutions were included; 799 (21%) were delivered by women and 3007 (79%) by men. The proportion of women GR speakers increased by 1% per year and increased for each topic over time with the exception of electrophysiology and basic/translational science. Women were most likely to speak on women's cardiovascular health (80 lectures [10.0%] vs 17 [0.6%] for men; P < .001).

Conclusions and relevance: Women compose about 1 in 5 cardiology GR speakers with modest growth in representation over time but remain underrepresented as GR speakers for procedural cardiology and basic/translational science topics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr DeFilippis reported personal fees from AstraZeneca and serving on a clinical trial committee for Abiomed outside the submitted work. Dr Harrington reported research grants/contracts from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) (ISCHEMIA), Duke/PCORI (ADAPTABLE), Janssen, and CSL Behring; serving on a data and safety monitoring board for the Baim Institute, Colorado Prevention Center, and Merck; consulting and/or advising for the NHLBI (COVID/CONNECTS), Atropos Health, Bitterroot Bio, Bristol Myers Squibb, Bridge Bio, Chiesi, Colorado Prevention Center, CSL Behring, Edwards Lifesciences Corp, Element Science, Foresight, Merck, and WebMD; and serving on the board of directors for the American Heart Association and Cytokinetics. Dr Mahmud reported support from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (K08DK124577) and research support from Grifols. Dr Reza reported support from the NHLBI (K23HL166961), speaking honoraria from Zoll, advisor fees from American Regent and Bristol Myers Squibb, and research grants to their institution from Bristol Myers Squibb outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. DeFilippis EM, Lau ES, Wei J, Hayes SN, Wood MJ. Where are the women in academic cardiology? Lancet. 2018;392(10160):2152-2153. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32618-7 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kaur G, Holtzman J, Power J, Ambinder D, Goyal A, Gulati M. Abstract 11028: Gender inequality in enrollment in late-breaking cardiovascular clinical trials. Circulation. 2021;144(suppl 1). doi: 10.1161/circ.144.suppl_1.11028 - DOI
    1. Van Spall HGC, Lala A, Deering TF, et al. ; Global CardioVascular Clinical Trialists (CVCT) Forum and Women As One Scientific Expert Panel . Ending gender inequality in cardiovascular clinical trial leadership: JACC Review Topic of the Week. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2021;77(23):2960-2972. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2021.04.038 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Walsh MN. Gender diversity in cardiovascular clinical trial research begins at the top. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2022;79(9):929-932. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2022.01.001 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Albert MA. #Me_Who anatomy of scholastic, leadership, and social isolation of underrepresented minority women in academic medicine. Circulation. 2018;138(5):451-454. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.035057 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources