Thread by @arghavan_salles

I am super duper excited to share with you my first research publication that was born on Twitter! In September 2016, @amaliacochranmd tweeted a NYTimes article about the representation of women at conferences and mused about repeating the study in surgery.

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@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright and I responded saying we were in, and we got to work! With the leadership of @KateGerull and Malik Wahba, we started a journey that was longer than any of us thought it would be. Finally published this:

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

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@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright @KateGerull We spent TWO YEARS trying to track mtg info and membership data from 16 societies, and many orgs would not/could not share the only thing we needed from them: What percentage of their members were women in 2011 and in 2016? Check out this flow chart for details:

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@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright @KateGerull We found some really interesting things, including the fact that almost half of the conferences we looked at (12/28) had ZERO women plenary speakers. 1/3 of societies (4/14) had zero women plenary speakers in both years we examined.

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@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright @KateGerull The proportion of women in moderator/panelist/speaker roles was quite variable with no discernible trend over time.

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@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright @KateGerull 40% OF ALL PANELS WERE MANELS.

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@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright @KateGerull You may think, “So what?” Or “It just takes time—there will be more women.” Or “There aren’t enough senior women. That’s really the problem.”

Please read the paper. These are important signals to women that they don’t belong.

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@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright @KateGerull The lack of interest in tracking their members’ characteristics and representation that we saw among some societies was concerning. We applaud the societies that are making concrete efforts. In the words of Elvis, “A little less conversation, a little more action please!”

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@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright @KateGerull On a separate note, I want to highlight the journey to publishing this work. We’ve spent the last year+ submitting and resubmitting this. We first submitted to a journal a/w a conference at which we had presented some data.

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@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright @KateGerull Here is the entirety of the review we received:

“While the content is timely in general , the conclusion are very vague do not really represent new insight” (sic)

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@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright @KateGerull With additional data we submitted to <major journal> and got comments suggesting, essentially, that since some societies didn’t track their membership our work wasn’t meaningful and we should do a different study.

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@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright @KateGerull They kindly forwarded the manuscript to a specialty journal. Sample comments from reviewers are in the photo and include saying that we have taken a “superficial” approach to the problem.

Don’t think anyone who knows me has accused me of that before. ☺️

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@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright @KateGerull The manuscript was then rejected, and we resubmitted to @AmJSurgery, where you can find the article now! Grateful to have found it a home. For the trainees out there, sometimes the road is rocky. Don’t give up!

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@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright @KateGerull @AmJSurgery cc @JulieSilverMD @DrJRMarcelin @drjenniferbest @reshmajagsi @enenbee @cfrangou @HarrietHopfMD @ETSshow @TomVargheseJr @jonessurgery @DrHowardLiu @AmyPearsonMD @AmyOxentenkoMD @SarehParangiMD @slsteinmd1 @drmlb @SAGES_Updates @Surg_Education @AcademicSurgery @MadelineBTorres

@AmaliaCochranMD @andrewswright @KateGerull @AmJSurgery @JulieSilverMD @DrJRMarcelin @drjenniferbest @reshmajagsi @enenbee @cfrangou @HarrietHopfMD @ETSshow @TomVargheseJr @jonessurgery @DrHowardLiu @AmyPearsonMD @AmyOxentenkoMD @SarehParangiMD @slsteinmd1 @drmlb @SAGES_Updates @Surg_Education @AcademicSurgery @MadelineBTorres @CAHarrisMD @PMartinezMD @AmCollSurgeons @ASCRStweets @ASMBS @EAST_TRAUMA @SSATNews @societyofBAS