# Academic Degree Bias Among Speaking and Leadership Roles at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meetings, 2016-2021

## TL;DR

This study found that Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine were underrepresented in speaking and leadership roles at AAOS annual meetings from 2016 to 2021.

## Contribution

The study highlights a potential bias in the inclusion of DOs in prominent speaking and leadership roles at AAOS meetings.

## Key findings

- DOs held only 1.1% of all speaking and leadership roles between 2016 and 2021.
- DOs were significantly underrepresented as invited speakers, moderators, and program committee members.
- The underrepresentation of DOs in these roles suggests a need to broaden the definition of diverse perspectives in academic medicine.

## Abstract

Objective: This study examined the proportion of Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DOs) across various speaking and leadership roles at recent American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) annual meetings.

Design: Meeting programs from the AAOS were publicly accessed and compiled between 2016 and 2021. Two categories of AAOS meeting participants were created. Invited speaker and faculty roles included moderators of symposia and program committee members while authors of presented papers were classified into academic roles. The proportion of DOs in each role type (invited speaker, academic) was recorded for each meeting program. The representation of DOs in these roles was then examined longitudinally across our analysis period using Pearson's Correlation.

Results: Overall, 1.1% (119/10,636) of all roles were held by DOs. Across our analysis period, DOs were disproportionately underrepresented as invited faculty or speakers (0.1%, 4/2791) compared with academic roles (0.1% vs 1.5%, p<0.001). Specifically, DOs were underrepresented as program committee members (0.08% vs 1.5%, p<0.001), symposia lecturers (0.1% vs 1.5%, p=0.004), and moderators of paper presentations (0.3% vs 1.5%, p=0.01).

Conclusion: Between 2016-2021, DOs were disproportionately represented as invited speakers or faculty at AAOS annual meetings. Our definition of diverse perspectives may need to expand to include osteopathic physicians.