Summary

This study is the first to evaluate factors influencing where female orthopaedic sports medicine fellows train and found that a majority (39 of 52 [75%]), of orthopaedic sports medicine fellowship programs examined in this study did not have a single female fellow during the 2022 – 2023 academic year.

Abstract

Objective

Orthopaedic sports medicine fellowships lag behind most specialties regarding female representation. To our knowledge, no previous studies have evaluated where female orthopaedic sports medicine fellows train and factors that may be associated with a higher number of female fellows (e.g. surgical exposure, faculty makeup, sports team coverage, and alumni gender differences). The purpose of this study was to determine the gender distribution of orthopaedic sports medicine fellows during the 2022-2023 academic year and to evaluate what factors may impact fellowship program selection. We hypothesized that programs with fewer female faculty and female alumni would have fewer female fellows.

Materials Methods: A list of orthopaedic sports medicine fellowships for 2022-2023 was obtained from The Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA) Fellowship Directory and American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) fellowship database. Programs were evaluated by geographical region, faculty and alumni makeup, surgical exposure, team sports coverage and sports level. Programs that offered primary care-based fellowships, were not ACGME accredited, or did not include gender data for fellows during 2022 – 2023 were excluded. Of 98 programs listed, 52 were included for analysis. Data was obtained in May 2023.

Results

Only 13 of the 52 (25%) orthopaedic sports medicine fellowship programs evaluated had female fellows. Across all programs, there was an average of 1.2 female and 9.5 male alumni. Programs with female faculty did not have a greater percentage of current female fellows. Hip arthroscopy was offered at 12 (100%) programs with female fellows, but only at 30 (81.8%) without female fellows.

Conclusion:? A majority of orthopaedic sports medicine fellowship programs did not have any female fellows during the 2022 – 2023 academic year. This study found a positive correlation between female alumni and future female fellow matriculation. Programs with female faculty had a higher percentage of female alumni. Additionally, programs with female fellows were more likely to expose their trainees to football at the high school level. Further research is needed to determine factors influencing the decision of female orthopaedic surgeons to pursue a sports medicine fellowship.