Gender and Early-career Faculty Disparities in Hematology and Oncology Board Review Lecture Series.

Participation of women and early-career faculty in hematology and medical oncology board review lecture series has not been studied previously. We aimed to evaluate gender and early-career faculty disparities in hematology and medical oncology board review lecture series. Speakers at major hematology and/or oncology board review lecture series meetings in the US were analyzed in this cross-sectional study during a 5-year period from the years 2017 through 2021. Data about the lecture topic, field, speaker's gender, years of experience, and the frequency at which the lecture was given by the speaker were collected. Of 386 speakers participating, 315 (81.6%) were American Board of Internal Medicine certified. A total of 1224 board review lectures were given in the studied period, of which 1016 (83%) were given by an American Board of Internal Medicine-certified speaker. Women constituted 37.7% of all speakers, with less than 50% representation in 5 out of 6 courses. Lectures discussing malignant hematology topics had the least proportion of women presenters (24.8%), followed by solid tumors (38.9%) and benign hematology lectures (44.1%). Faculty with more than 15 years since initial certification presented more than 50% of lectures. The median time from initial hematology or medical oncology certification to lecture presentation was 12.5 years and 14 years, respectively. A positive trend in the participation of women was found at all board review conferences across the studied period. Our data suggest that women and early-career faculty participation in hematology and oncology board review series is inadequate.