American Society of Neuroradiology research survey 2001

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Research is a critical component of the mission of academic radiology, and success in research is necessary for the future of neuroradiology. Thus, the authors set out to establish a baseline of research activities of American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) members. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors surveyed 100 fellowship program directors. The survey was Web based, with recruitment from the ASNR Fellowship Database survey site and with e-mail and fax solicitations to the Web site. Questions focused on neuroradiologist and neuroradiology fellow involvement in research. RESULTS: Forty-eight of the 100 program directors (48%) responded. Several key findings emerged: (a) About one-third of fellowship programs require all fellows to do some research, with most fellows receiving less than 1 day per week of academic time; (b) just over half of the programs expect fellows to publish a paper; (c) about two-thirds of academic neuroradiologists get at least 1 academic day per week; (d) most academic neuroradiologists perform research, but most of this research is unfunded; and (e) about nine of 10 academic sections have at least one neuroradiologist with some extramural funding. CONCLUSION: The relative lack of extramural funding among academic neuroradiologists is a reality that is probably multifactorial; however, there may be a direct relationship between amount of academic time free from clinical duties and successful competition for funding. The time (and, thus, financial) support of research-oriented fellows and faculty should be increased.     

An evaluation of gender diversity in the American Brachytherapy Society

PurposeRecent evaluation of female representation in major radiation oncology organizations was published by Knoll et al. (IJROBP, 2018) but did not include information about the American Brachytherapy Society (ABS). The objective of this study is to assess trends in gender diversity in the ABS.Materials and MethodsPublicly available information from the ABS and American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) websites were used to determine the proportion of women in various leadership positions and receiving awards and honors. The data were organized by comparing female representation up until 2004 and then from 2005 until current as was done in the article of Knoll et al. to facilitate comparisons with ASTRO.ResultsOf the 579 US physician members of the ABS, 155 (27%) are women. There has been an increase in the proportion of female ABS presidents and female Hensche Award recipients between 1978–2004 and 2005–2018. There was a significant difference in the female makeup of the editorial board of the main journals for the ABS (18%) and ASTRO (43%) (p = 0.02). Two other prominent differences between the ABS and ASTRO, however not statistically significant, were the female representation of 2018 fellows (10% vs. 26%, respectively) and recipients of each organization's highest honor between 2005 and 2017 (25% vs. 6%, respectively).ConclusionsOver the past decade, there has been an increase in women representation in the ABS presidency and Henschke awardees. Representation still remains low, relative to ASTRO, in other areas suggesting room for further improvement. Exploring these trends is imperative in developing potential solutions to improve gender diversity in the field of brachytherapy.