Attracting women into the radiology profession continues to be a challenge in 2019, but one Boston-based hospital may have found the secret sauce to reversing this trend.
A few years ago, Brigham and Women’s decided to implement its own Women in Radiology (WIR) program to better fill out its female ranks, and it’s finding early success. Nationally, only about 27% of radiology residents are women, but the Harvard teaching hospital has been able to boost that number to 40%, leaders noted in a Dec. 13 article published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
The endeavor has offered the institution a means to better connect with residents, get them interested in radiology and keep the engaged in the profession going forward.
“WIR organizations can provide significant value to a radiology department,” wrote Kirti Magudia, MD, PhD, founding resident chair of the program, and colleagues, adding that a robust WIR program can also contribute to the recruitment of women into the department.
Magudia—who’s now finishing her radiology training at the University of California, San Francisco—offered six steps that radiology leaders can follow to establish their own WIR program:
1) Lay the groundwork: Success depends on “consistent and sound” governance, the group wrote, including trainee leadership and a thoughtfully identified faculty sponsor. A steering committee, filled with “highly interested” trainees and faculty can help with planning the calendar and events, with residents providing the bulk of the brainpower.
2) Make a pitch: Magudia suggested developing a persuasive proposal before approaching leadership for support. This can include a mission statement to spell out your WIR’s focus and direction. An annual calendar of events and budget are critical, too, so that you’re not forced to apply for funding multiple times each year.
3) Keep in touch: It’s also crucial to build and maintain an email list of members so they can be reached regularly. Brigham and Women’s WIR leaders make sure to obtain an updated list of all female faculty, fellows and residents each year. Social media has proven to be a useful tool, as well.
4) Fill the calendar: A diverse array of events can help to sustain interest in the WIR program after it gets off the ground. This can include a welcome event to start the year, visits from inspiring senior attending physicians, skills-based events to help with training and prominent keynote speakers to draw wider interest.
5) Ensure sustainability: Early junior resident involvement, engaged faculty, consistent funding and leadership transition planning are all important ingredients to make sure your program does not fizzle out in the first year. This can start by pairing junior residents with senior mentors to plan future events and stay closely involved with the organization.
6) Measure success: Magudia and colleagues made sure to gauge whether these efforts were actually making a difference, which is also helpful in ensuring consistent funding. Event attendance, female retention numbers and satisfaction surveys have been just a few useful metrics to track, she wrote.
However your program is structured, the team believes that making a concerted effort to encourage more female physicians into the profession is a worthy cause. Much work remains to be done, with only about 13% of women holding leadership roles in radiology.
“Recruitment, retention and the success of women in radiology constitute important objectives for radiology departments because promotion of gender diversity contributes to their strength and quality of patient care,” Magudia noted.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.