Although the percentage of female principal investigators in clinical trials has increased in recent years, gender underrepresentation continued to persist, according to a research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Of note, researchers observed higher rates of the gender gap in late-phase and industry-funded trials.

“Serving as a principal investigator can lead to professional advancements and prestige, making it a significant career advancement opportunity for physicians,” Ithai Waldhorn, MD, PhD, researcher in the division of oncology at Rambam Health Care Campus, Israel, and colleagues wrote.

Investigators sought to assess representation of women as principal investigators in 245,771 clinical trials. They used Genderize.io to predict gender, the Cochran-Armitage trend test to estimate the association between representation of female principal investigators over time and study phases, and the Wilcoxon rank sum test to evaluate the association between gender of the principal investigator and trial participants.

Read more at: https://www.healio.com/news/hematology-oncology/20231030/disparities-persist-in-clinical-trial-leadership-across-specialties