Abstract
Objectives
This study assessed historical and current gender, racial, and ethnic diversity trends within US pathology graduate medical education (GME) and the pathologist workforce.
Methods
Data from online, publicly available sources were assessed for significant differences in racial, ethnic, and sex distribution in pathology trainees, as well as pathologists in practice or on faculty, separately compared with the US population and then each other using binomial tests.
Results
Since 1995, female pathology resident representation has been increasing at a rate of 0.45% per year (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.29-0.61; P < .01), with pathology now having significantly more females (49.8%) compared to the total GME pool (45.4%; P < .0001). In contrast, there was no significant trend in the rate of change per year in black or American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AI/AN/NH/PI) resident representation (P = .04 and .02). Since 1995, underrepresented minority (URM) faculty representation has increased by 0.03% per year (95% CI, 0.024-0.036; P < .01), with 7.6% URM faculty in 2018 (5.2% Hispanic, 2.2% black, 0.2% AI/AN/NH/PI).
Conclusions
This assessment of pathology trainee and physician workforce diversity highlights significant improvements in achieving trainee gender parity. However, there are persistent disparities in URM representation, with significant underrepresentation of URM pathologists compared with residents.
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