From the Departments of Neurology and Population Health (M.T.M.), NYU Langone Health; Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine (E.F.L.), University of Washington School of Medicine and Center for Child Health, Behavior & Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute; Department of Neurology (A.H.), Massachusetts General Hospital; Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology (E.K.S.), Yeshiva University; Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology (E.K.S.), Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Department of Pediatrics (J.H.), University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children's Hospital Colorado; Division of Neurology (C.L.S.), Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Departments of Neurology & Pediatrics (C.L.S.), Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; and Department of Neurology (R.E.W.), Wake Forest Baptist Health.
Neurology. 2020 Aug 25;95(8):349-359. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000010285. Epub 2020 Jul 9.
There has been a substantial rise in the number of women pursuing careers in neurology. However, research has shown that women in neurology have high rates of burnout with gender disparities in burnout and attrition in the field. Recently, there was a call from the NIH, including the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, asking for input on factors that may limit or discourage grant applications from women. As the recipients of the highly coveted NIH career mentored awards (K awards) in headache medicine, we applaud the NIH for asking for gender-specific feedback and for raising awareness of research showing that female faculty on the Research Track are at an increased risk of departure. Using the NIH model for the Responsible Conduct of Research and the tenant of Nurturing the Fertile Environment, we discuss specific challenges in academic research that may contribute to gender differences in neurology research success. Although the rate of women conducting NIH-funded migraine research increased from 23% to 41% over the last 10 years, more women are currently in training compared with independence, with 6/6 of the NIH training grants but only 12/36 of the NIH research-level grants, held by women in fiscal years 2017-2019. We suggest concrete solutions to these challenges to ensure the success of women in research reaching independence.
越来越多的女性选择从事神经科相关职业。然而，研究表明，神经科医生群体中女性的职业倦怠率较高，且在该领域中，女性的倦怠和离职率存在性别差异。最近，美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）发出呼吁，包括国立神经疾病与中风研究院在内，要求提供可能限制或阻碍女性申请拨款的因素的相关意见。我们作为头痛医学领域中备受追捧的 NIH 职业指导奖（K 奖）的获得者，对 NIH 要求提供性别特定反馈以及提高对研究的认识表示赞赏，该研究表明，处于研究轨道上的女性教职员工离开的风险增加。我们采用 NIH 负责任研究行为模式和培养肥沃环境的原则，讨论了学术研究中可能导致神经科研究成功方面性别差异的具体挑战。尽管过去 10 年来，从事 NIH 资助的偏头痛研究的女性比例从 23%增加到 41%，但与独立研究相比，目前处于培训阶段的女性人数更多，在 2017 年至 2019 年的财政年度中，NIH 培训拨款中有 6/6 为女性获得，而 NIH 研究级拨款中仅有 12/36 为女性获得。我们建议针对这些挑战提出具体解决方案，以确保女性在独立研究中取得成功。
