Gender disparity continues among National Basketball Association (NBA) and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), according to a new study presented at the 2021 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) annual meeting in San Diego, California.
Only 2.4% of NBA (29% WNBA) Team Physicians Are Women
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Female physicians are underrepresented across many medical specialties, particularly at senior levels. Previous research has shown that this disparity in representation also occurs in the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
In this latest study, “Gender Disparity Among NBA, WNBA Team Physicians,” the researchers sought to evaluate the distribution of men and women among team physicians on the medical staffs of National Basketball Association and Women’s National Basketball Association in the last 10 years. They also wanted to see if there were any regional differences in the representation of female physicians.
The findings are based on a Google search conducted in October 2019 of publicly available data regarding team physician gender, medical specialty, and medical degree for team physicians in both organizations over the last 10 years.
The researchers identified 125 team physicians for the NBA. Of these, 122 or 97.6% were men and only 3 or 2.4% were female. In the WNBA, 28 physicians were identified; 20 or 71.4% were male and 8 or 28.6% were female.
Five of the NBA physicians were osteopathic physicians. There were 2 osteopathic physicians in the WNBA. In the NBA, 86 male physicians and 1 female physician specialized in orthopedic surgery. In the WNBA, 12 of the male physicians and 8 female physicians specialized in orthopedic surgery. Other common specialties among the physicians included family medicine and internal medicine.
The researchers also noted that the Northeast had the greatest proportion of female team physicians with 5 of 18 of the physicians. Female physicians represented 3 of the 41 in the Midwest, 2 of the 45 in the South and 1 of 48 in the West.
They wrote, “This study demonstrates a substantial difference in the number of female physicians with leadership roles in both the NBA and WNBA compared to male physicians. It is important to try to understand what barriers female physicians face in their pursuit of leadership positions in sports medicine and to implement strategies to provide equal opportunities to both male and female physicians.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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