L. Ngo1, C. Spector1, A. Avila1, L. Castro Hernandez1, V. Lao1, J. Parreco1, H. Neville2 1Memorial Healthcare System, Department Of Surgery, Hollywood, FL, USA 2Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, Department Of Surgery, Hollywood, FL, USA
Introduction: Gender income disparities are widely described in medicine. Female surgeons receive $0.78 for every $1.00 made by their male colleagues, which translates to male surgeons earning $43,000 more annually. Women have also been found to participate less in research and hold a smaller proportion of leadership roles. In this study, our group compared the payments received by surgeon and non-surgeon female and male physicians from drug and device corporations. We hypothesized that there would be a significant payment distribution gap between male and female surgeons.
Methods: The Open Payments dataset for 2016-2021 was queried for total payments per year per physician from drug and device corporations. Physicians were compared by gender and non-surgeons versus surgeons, including the 14 surgical specialties recognized by the American College of Surgeons. The mean and median gender pay gap was calculated for each specialty.
Results: During the study period, $10.7 billion were paid to physicians from drug and device companies. Women received $1.3 billion (11.8%) while men received $9.4 billion (88.2%). Among surgeons, women received $282 million (5.9%) and men received $4.5 billion (94.1%). For non-surgeons, women received $984 million (16.7%) and men received $4.9 billion (83.3%). The overall mean payments per year was $1,496 for women and $4,566 for men, a gender pay gap of 67.2%. The median payments per year was $116 for women and $154 for men, a gap of 24.7%. For surgeons the mean gap was 80.3% and the median was 35.9%. For non-surgeons, the mean gap was 54.7% and the median was 19.1%. The surgical specialties with the highest median pay gap were endocrinology (50.5%) and gynecologic oncology (46.2%) while the lowest were dermatology (-8.7%) and colorectal surgery (-3.9%). The results of our study are summarized in Table 1.
Conclusion: Our study revealed significant gender-based differences in payments from drug and device companies to physicians, with women receiving a smaller proportion of payments compared to men. These disparities are particularly pronounced among surgeons. Women physicians receive a smaller portion of payments from drug and device companies compared to men. Actions must be taken to continue to promote the accurate reporting of payment gaps and acknowledgement of payment inequalities across all medical and surgical specialties. Actions in contract negotiation and education during training may aid in promoting payment equality among women physicians and surgeons.