Fixing the Leaky Pipeline

 The American Medical Women’s Association is conducting a research study to learn why women leave medical school and residency training, so that we might develop policies, procedures, and interventions to reduce the number of women who leave medical training. This is a pilot study for a future, larger study.

Prospective Participants:

If you decide to take part in this study, you will be asked to complete one 60 minute interview.  The interviewer will ask you to tell us your story about why you left medical school or residency. We estimate that 6-10 subjects will take part in this initial phase of the pilot study, with half being medical students and half being residents. A subsequent phase of this study will be focus groups that use the information from these pilot interviews. We will communicate with you about participation in this study via email.

This is a minimal risk study. No personal health information will be collected. All transcriptions will be de-identified and data will be aggregated for reports. There is a potential for discomfort during the interview process. The interviewer will be supportive during the interview, and if needed, suggestions for follow up will be provided. You can skip any of the questions you do not want to answer. Because this study involves collecting personal information about you, there is a potential for invasion of privacy or breach in confidentiality. To minimize this risk, we will not store any directly identifiable information about you with your interview responses.  All of the information we collect will be stored in a secure manner and only study team members will have access to it. There are also no expected benefits.

The American Medical Women’s Association is receiving a grant from the American Medical Association (Joan F. Giambalvo Fund) to defray some of the costs associated with this study. None of the study personnel have any conflict of interest associated with this study.

You will receive a $25 gift card for participating in this study. The gift card will be sent to you via email after you complete the interview. There are no costs to you for participating in this study.

The American Medical Women’s Association will make every effort to keep the information collected from you private.  In order to do so, audio recordings and transcripts will be de-identified and stored in a secured and encrypted electronic password protected database on a protected drive in a locked office. Only investigators involved in the study will have access to the stored data. The data will only be used for research purposes and will not be used in any other manner or shared with anyone other than the study researchers.  Results of the research may presented at meetings or in publications, but your name will not be used.

Your participation in this study is voluntary.  You are free to not participate or to withdraw at any time, for whatever reason.

To participate please send an email AMWAstudy@gmail.com.

For more information or questions about this research you may also email AMWAstudy@gmail.com.

This study was reviewed by OHSU IRB (#00021470)

Principal Investigators:

Eliza Lo Chin, MD, MPH (American Medical Women’s Association, AMWA), Roberta Gebhard, DO (AMWA), Wendy Bernstein MD, MBA (AMWA, University of Rochester Medical Center), Mollie Marr, BFA (AMWA, Oregon Health & Science University), Lisa Marriott, PhD (Oregon Health & Science University)