All Other Things Being Equal

Thilan P. Wijesekera, Margeum Kim, Edward Z. Moore, Olav Sorenson, David A. Ross

A large body of literature has demonstrated racial and gender disparities in the physician workforce, but limited data are available regarding the potential origins of these disparities. To that end, the authors evaluated the effects of race and gender on Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society (AOA) and Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) induction. In this retrospective cohort study, the authors examined data from 11,781 Electronic Residency Application Service applications from 133 U.S. MD-granting medical schools to 12 residency programs in the 2014-2015 application cycle and to all 15 residency programs in the 2015-2016 cycle at Yale-New Haven Hospital. They estimated the odds of induction into AOA and GHHS using logistic regression models, adjusting for Step 1 score, research publications, citizenship status, training interruptions, and year of application. They used gender- and race-matched samples to account for differences in clerkship grades and to test for bias. Women were more likely than men to be inducted into GHHS (odds ratio 1.84, P < .001) but did not differ in their likelihood of being inducted into AOA. Black medical students were less likely to be inducted into AOA (odds ratio 0.37, P < .05) but not into GHHS. These findings demonstrate significant differences between groups in AOA and GHHS induction. Given the importance of honor society induction in residency applications and beyond, these differences must be explored further.