Diversity and Professional Advancement in Medical Physics

While disparities in the inclusion and advancement of women and minorities in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical fields have been well documented, less work has focused on medical physics specifically. In this study, we evaluate historical and current diversity within the medical physics workforce, in cohorts representative of professional advancement (PA) in the field, and within National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded medical physics research activities.

The 2020 American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) membership was queried as surrogate for the medical physics workforce. Select subsets of the AAPM membership were queried as surrogate for PA and early career professional advancement (ECPA) in medical physics. Self-reported AAPM-member demographics data representative of study analysis groups were identified and analyzed. Demographic characteristics of the 2020 AAPM membership were compared with those of the PA and ECPA cohorts and United States (US) population. The AAPM-NIH Research Database was appended with principal investigator (PI) demographics data and analyzed to evaluate trends in grant allocation by PI demographic characteristics.

Women, Hispanic/Latinx/Spanish individuals, and individuals reporting a race other than White or Asian alone comprised 50.8%, 18.7%, and 32.4% of the US population, respectively, but only 23.9%, 9.1%, and 7.9% of the 2020 AAPM membership, respectively. In general, representation of women and minorities was further decreased in the PA cohort; however, significantly higher proportions of women (P < .001) and Hispanic/Latinx/Spanish members (P < .05) were observed in the ECPA cohort than the 2020 AAPM membership. Analysis of historical data revealed modest increases in diversity within the AAPM membership since 2002. Across NIH grants awarded to AAPM members between 1985 and 2020, only 9.4%, 5.3%, and 1.7% were awarded to women, Hispanic/Latinx/Spanish, and non-White, non-Asian PIs, respectively.

Diversity within medical physics is limited. Proactive policy should be implemented to ensure diverse, equitable, and inclusive representation within research activities, roles representative of PA, and the profession at large.