Paige Weaver, PharmD,
PGY2 Critical Care Pharmacy Resident
Maine Medical Center
Portland, Maine
Disclosure information not submitted.
Kaitlyn Sherman, PharmD
PGY1 Pharmacy Resident
Chippenham & Johnston Willis Hospitals, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Kathryn Smith, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP
Pharmacist
Maine Medical Center, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
David Gagnon, BCCCP, PharmD, FCCM
Clinical Pharmacist - Critical Care
Maine Medical Center, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Title: Publication Rate and Impact Disparity between Male and Female Pharmacists designated FCCM
Introduction: Appointment as a Fellow within the American College of Critical Care Medicine (FCCM) requires significant scholarly contributions related to critical care. No study has compared publication productivity and impact between male and female pharmacists designated FCCM. The objective of this study was to quantify publications and impact stratified by gender in this cohort.
Methods: Pharmacists designated FCCM through the 2020 convocation year were identified in January 2021. Pharmacists designated Master of Critical Care Medicine and those without an active pharmacist license were excluded. Demographic data included country, state and geographic region of practice site, number of staffed beds, and hospital designation. Scopus was queried in February 2021 and year of first publication, total number of publications, citations, and h-index were extracted. Published abstracts were not included and the pharmacist could be in any place on the author list. Continuous data are reported as median (IQR) and compared using the Mann-Whitney test. Proportions are presented as number (%) and compared with the chi-square test. P-value of < 0.05 considered statistically significant.
Results: Of the 152 pharmacists designated FCCM, 134 (88%) were evaluable including 76 (57%) males and 58 (43%) females. The majority of males and females practiced in the Southern geographic region of the USA (41% vs. 52%; p=0.3) and at an academic medical center (82% vs. 88%; p=0.4). Year of first publication was earlier for males (2005 [1999, 2009]) than females (2010 [2006, 2012]) (p=0.0002). Number of publications was higher for males (29 [14, 49]) than females (13 [7, 29]) (p=0.002). A similar trend was seen for publications per year for males (2 [1, 3]) than females (1 [0.5, 3]) (p=0.05). Number of citations was almost three-fold higher for males (384 [133, 800]) than females (139 [61, 363]) (p=0.001). H-index was also higher for males (10 [6, 15]) than females (6 [3, 9]) (p=0.0005). Year of FCCM convocation was within the past 5 years for 46% of males and 67% for females (p=0.02).
Conclusions: The gender disparity in timing and impact of publications amongst pharmacists designated FCCM may be explained by a greater number of females being designated FCCM in the past 5 years compared to males and deserves further exploration.