Abstract

This study examined the demographics, program affiliations, resident training backgrounds, and fellowship outcomes of ASDP Physician-in-Training awardees from 2012-2022. This study also explored the association between these factors and project publication rates. Internet searches were used to determine gender, program affiliation, residency training, and fellowship training for the awardees and if and where award-winning projects were ultimately published. In the 11-year study period, 120 awards were presented to 109 doctors from 56 programs. 55 (50.46%) awardees were male. 54 (49.54%) were female. 36 (33.03%) had dermatology residency training, 72 (66.06%) had pathology residency training, and one awardee (0.92%) had both. 83 (76.1%) of the awardees were residents at the time of their award. Of the 75 (68.81%) awardees that had completed residency at the time of data collection (April 2023), 65 (86.67%) completed some type of fellowship training. Of those, 49 (75.38%) ultimately did a dermatopathology fellowship, making it the most common fellowship. Of the 120 award-winning projects, 59 (49.17%) had a related manuscript published in a journal, most commonly Journal of Cutaneous Pathology with 17 publications (28.81%). Gender was significantly associated with publication status (X²=9.636, p=.002). Projects presented by female awardees were significantly less likely to end up published than projects from male awardees (RR=.553 [.372,.820]). Dermatology vs. pathology residency training (X²=1.043, p=.594) and fellow vs. resident status (X²=.251, p=.616) were not significantly associated with publication status. The gender publication gap has been well-documented across medical specialties and, despite increased efforts toward diversity, is still present in dermatopathology.