Introduction: There is a paucity of literature evaluating research-funding differences between male and female surgeons. Our study aims to evaluate possible disparities in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant awards by surgeon gender, type of medical degree (MD/DO), and advanced degrees among six surgery specialties: general surgeons, neurosurgeons, urologists, obstetricians/gynecologists, plastic, and orthopedic surgeons, from 2015 to 2020.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed investigating the number of NIH grants received by male and female surgeon-scientists overall and within each listed specialty, 2015-2020. As a surrogate for grants submitted, the proportion of active surgeon-scientists per specialty was used. A priori level of significance was defined as P < 0.05.
Results: After adjusting for confounders, male surgeons had a higher mean number of NIH grants and higher grant funding than female surgeons (P < 0.001 for both). Type of medical degree (MD/DO) was not significantly associated with NIH funding. An advanced degree was associated with NIH funding among neurosurgeons only (P < 0.05). Differences in the proportion of active surgeon-scientists and proportion of NIH grants received by male and female surgeon-scientists were found only in the fields of orthopedic surgery (5.8% female surgeons and received 20.7% of grants, P = 0.003) and plastic surgery (17.2% female surgeons and received 33.3% of grants, P = 0.01).
Conclusions: Male surgeons received most of the total surgical NIH grants. However, funding for female surgeons in orthopedic and plastic surgery outpaces that of their male counterparts when compared to gender proportions in their respective field. Future studies should further investigate the effects of additional applicant demographics on securing NIH grant funding.
Keywords: Gender equity; Grant awards; Medical and advanced degrees; National Institutes of Health; Surgical specialties.
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