http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chicago-women-neurosurgeons-aug13,0,7910818.story
Profession ponders why there are so few female neurosurgeons?
By Bruce Japsen | Tribune staff reporter 3:14 PM CDT, August 13, 2008 Even though more than half of all students attending U.S. medical schools these days are female, the field of neurosurgery faces challenges attracting and retaining women to the profession, according to a new report.
The lack of women specialists in surgery of the brain and nervous system, published in the September issue of Journal of Neurosurgery, highlights a potential problem that could lead to a shortage of neurosurgeons as a whole given the increasing role of women in medicine, the authors say.
"There is a real public interest in addressing this," said Gail Rosseau, chief of surgery at the Neurologic and Orthopedic Institute of Chicago and an assistant professor of neurosurgery at
Rush University Medical Center. "At the end of the day, we are all patients and we want to be sure there are adequate numbers of qualified neurosurgeons to take care of us and our loved ones' strokes, brain tumors, back and neck pains . . . ''
Female board-certified neurosurgeons account for less than 6 percent of a neurosurgical work force that numbers more than 3,000. Meanwhile, just about 300 or two percent of the 16,000 graduating medical students are applying for 180 available residency positions each year over the last decade.
"The paper touches on the fact that the number of neurosurgeons appears to be decreasing relative to a growing population and that there is an urgent need to attract more qualified candidates to address this potential shortage," said Dr. James Bean, president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, which is based in the Chicago suburb of
Rolling Meadows. "This is an issue that affects the specialty as a whole – and inevitably our patients – and we intend to work together to resolve it."
The paper was written by a dozen female neurosurgeons who are members of the group Women in Neurosurgery, which is advocating for ways to attract more women to the field. They say more medical schools and teaching hospitals need more women as department heads and other leadership positions as a way to make women role models.
"There are also some instances where there are no role models," Rosseau said.
Today, only six percent of full-time neurosurgical faculty are female and fewer than five percent of neurosurgeons in private practice are female.
The field can be considered among medicine's most rigorous and take 11 to 14 years before entering private practice, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons says. Following the standard four-year U.S. medical school curriculum, it's common for an aspiring neurosurgeon to complete a one year internship and a six-year neurosurgical residency. Some also pursue one or two-year fellowships.
