Disclosures: Claudia I. Martinez, MD: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Objective : To report the demographics, training characteristics and academic appointment of current academic Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) department chairs.

Design: All current PM&R chairs were included in the study. The gender and ethnicity of each chair was determined by self-representation in publicly available profiles. Training characteristics and academic appointment information was obtained from performing a review of publically available data on Doximity, Association of Academic Physiatrists (AAP) website, and individual academic departmental websites. Descriptive analysis was performed.

Setting : Review of publically available data.

Participants : 88 current chairs of US academic PM&R departments.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: Chairs’ demographics, training characteristics, academic appointments.

Results: A total of 88 chairs were reviewed. 58% had been chair for at least 5 years. 93% were permanent chairs and 7% were interim chairs. 77% of chairs were men and 23% were women. 71% were White, 11% Hispanic, 9% Asian, 7% Other and 2% were African American.

90% of chairs were American Medical Graduates, while 10% were International Medical Graduates. 90% had obtained a degree from an allopathic medical school, 10% from an osteopathic medical school. 11% had both an MD and Master’s Degree, 5% had both an MD and PhD and 2% had both a DO and master’s Degree. 35% had completed a fellowship. 74% had not completed their training in the department where they are currently serving as chair, of those who did 57% completed it as a resident, 37% as a medical student and 6% as a fellow.

58% of chairs were full professors in PM&R, 22% associate professors, and 15% assistant professors. 42% of chairs have been chair for less than 5 years, 32% between 6 to 10 years, 16% between 11-15 years and 10% have been chair >15 years.

Conclusions: Overall, there is an underrepresentation of women and underrepresented minorities amongst academic department chairs in the field of PM&R.

Level of Evidence: Level III

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/characteristics-of-academic-chairs-in-physical-medicine-and-rehabilitation/