Abstract

In the last four decades women students have achieved near parity within medical schools across the United States. Yet, there is a significant shortfall of women who teach medical students and/or lead medical institutions. Mentoring, early scholar and career advancement opportunities for women training in medicine are necessary to enable a full spectrum of diversity and inclusion in academic medicine for education, research and patient care. It is also evident that women need to identify role models and competent mentors in the early stages of their careers. Is this enough to climb the academic medicine leadership ladder? The Building the Next Generation of Academic Physicians (BNGAP) initiative consists of a group of academic medicine faculty, residents and students whose purpose is to increase diversity in the academic medicine workforce. Our research indicates that 62.4% of women medical students and 84.2% of women residents share an interest in academic medicine careers. How do we establish ground for their successful climb? Significant BNGAP results will be summarized with recommendations to inform diversity and inclusion efforts for the future of women exploring as well as those who have careers in academic medicine.