A remote mentorship model for empowering students to undertake electrocardiology research: Effects on gender equity

Over the past years, there has been increasing awareness on female representation in cardiology, in particular senior academic ranks. Given the gender disparity in cardiology, female talents in cardiovascular academic medicine are significantly under-represented. In addition, whilst women have a slightly higher frequency of earning first authorships, it has been reported that women are 50% less likely to hold a senior authorship position. The drop in female representation in senior ranks of academic medicine may be contributed by a lack of female talent engagement, particularly during their early-career advancement, in high-impact journals and leadership roles. We present a remote, accessible-distributed research team model to help raise the female representation and tackle the challenges faced by female academics in the field of cardiovascular medicine. The group celebrates accessibility through open communication and collaboration, where mentees can seek research advice and ideas virtually from senior members and principal investigators. The decentralized system allows easy access for research guidance and inspirationand break down barriers in the lack of mentorship for early-career female talents. Students are empowered to lead their projects, and be involved in all phases- from the generation of study ideas to publication. The early development of holistic independent research skills equips students to become principal investigators and leaders in the future. The distributive element of the group is demonstrated through the decentralized research approach employed. Authorship is allocated based on intellectual contribution rather than on the acquisition of funding or seniority level.