Academic Development and Diversity in Emergency Medicine project

Title

Academic Development and Diversity in Emergency Medicine (ADD-EM) project

Background

Diversity has become a growing concern in society as well as in specialized academic fields and research. It has been shown that patient outcomes are negatively affected when research efforts are focused on specific parts of the population while others are neglected. Involving a diverse group of researchers with unique perspectives into the design of health research projects can reduce bias and can result in more balanced research efforts that benefit a broader population. However, disparities in diversity have been observed as a disproportional number of female researchers leave their academic careers after obtaining a PhD and can therefore not contribute their perspectives to future research. The magnitude and reasons for this effect remain debated. Simultaneously, these differ between research fields and countries, warranting detailed investigations in a specialized field such as emergency medicine.

Aim

The overall aim of the research project is to understand and improve the local and international academic environment for the next generation of scientists in emergency medicine and related fields.

SUB STUDIES

To address the overall aim of the project, several sub-studies and initiatives will be carried out.

Sub-study I

Title:
10-year Trend of Speaker Diversity at International Emergency Medicine Conferences.

Aim:
The aim of the study is to describe the speaker diversity at leading international conferences that focus on emergency medicine over a 10-year period.

Methods:
The study identifies the leading, international, English-speaking conferences that focus on emergency medicine and retrieve the program books from their past 10 conferences (2013-2022), enabling us to describe the development of speaker and organizing committee diversity in terms of gender, affiliation, profession, topic and allocated speaking time.

Perspective

We hope to provide conference organizers and academics with a comprehensive overview of the potential disparities in diversity and the current trajectory of speaker selections at leading emergency medicine conferences. This will enable conference organizing committees to take strategic decisions to address these disparities. It will also inform individuals about the current landscape of opportunities and can guide mentors to provide targeted support for mentees from underrepresented groups in order for them to be recognized for conference speaking opportunities in the future.