A vast majority of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures in the United States are performed by men, according to a new analysis published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions.
“In the last 5 decades, the number of women in medicine has increased and now represents the majority (53.6%) of matriculating medical students in the United States,” wrote first author Timothy F. Simpson, MD, PharmD, of the Knight Cardiovascular Institute in Portland, Oregon, and colleagues. “However, the proportion of women in cardiovascular specialties remains unbalanced, particularly, the procedural specialties of interventional cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery.”
To examine this trend among TAVR operators, Simpson et al. examined Medicare data from 2014 to 2018. Overall, the group found, most TAVR operators are men—and it’s not even close.
For instance, more than 1,800 operators performed more than 61,000 transfemoral TAVR procedures in 2018—and just 3.6% of those procedures were performed by women. These numbers, the authors noted, remain largely the same even as TAVR continues to gain popularity throughout the country.
“From 2014 through 2018, there was a 58.7% annualized increase in total TAVR operators, without a considerable change in the proportion of women,” the authors wrote.
The group also noted that 19 U.S. states had no TAVR operators as recent as 2018.
Women continue to be significantly underrepresented in cardiovascular subspecialties, including interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery, despite the awareness of gender imbalance in cardiovascular medicine,” the authors concluded. “Studies have identified several factors, including the culture of procedural subspecialties and lack of same gender mentorship, which may dissuade women from pursuing a career in cardiovascular medicine. Our findings mandate further investigations and should drive intentional policies/efforts to enhance women representation and leadership in TAVR and structural heart subspecialties.”
Read the full research letter here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.