Recognizing international medical graduates: Awards and committee membership in ASCO.

Abstract

9008 Background: International Medical Graduates (IMGs) comprise one third of practicing oncologists and half of hematology-oncology fellows in the US. This study explores the previously unexamined distribution of ASCO awards, Fellow of ASCO (FASCO) designation and ASCO committee memberships between IMGs and American Medical Graduates (AMGs). Methods: Between 2019-2023, we gathered data from the ASCO website on ASCO awards including career development awards (CDA), young investigator awards (YIA), MERIT and Other awards, and FASCO distinctions. Between 2021-2023 we gathered information on ASCO committee memberships. We searched for medical school and degree of each individual to classify them as IMGs, AMGs, International physicians or non-physicians. We used the world bank geographical distribution comparing IMGs’ country of origin. Chi-square, Fisher’s Exact, and Cochran-Armitage Trend tests were performed as appropriate using SAS v. 9.4. Results: Out of a total of 2,514 entries, 2,342 physicians were included for analyses (1583 ASCO awards, and 759 FASCO designation/committee memberships) and 172 non-physician entries were excluded. Among 1583 physicians with ASCO awards, 22% were IMGs (133 Female (F), 209 Male (M)), 58% were AMGs (410F, 508M) and 20% were international physicians (150F, 173M). Among 759 physicians with FASCO designation/committee membership, 18% were IMGs (61F, 77M), 71% were AMGs (293F, 245M) and 11% were international physicians (41F, 42M). IMGs were significantly underrepresented compared to AMGs (p<0.001) in receiving YIA (18% vs 82%), CDA (21% vs 79%), MERIT (35% vs 65%) and Other awards (15% vs 85%). The ratio of CDA-YIA to Merit/Other awards were 0.36 and 0.83 for IMGs and AMGs, respectively (p<0.001). This underrepresented trend of IMGs for ASCO awards remained unchanged between 2019-2023 (p=0.6).Compared to the major career awards (YIA and CDA) through these years, FASCO designation for IMGs has an increasing trend (p=0.03). The proportion of FASCO granted to IMGs increased from 9% in 2019 to 25% in 2023. Female IMGs were the least represented group for the awards (25%, p=0.07) and FASCO/committee membership (17%, p=0.03) when compared to AMGs. Majority of these IMGs were from South Asia (30%) and Europe/Central Asia (24%) while Sub-Saharan Africa had the lowest representation (3%) based on world bank classification. Conclusions: IMGs' receipt of major career awards (CDA, YIA) remains significantly underrepresented while their contributions to ASCO volunteering activities is on the increasing trend as evidenced by increase in FASCO designee IMGs. Barriers for major career awards for IMGs remain to be explored. Year wise trend of IMGs with ASCO CDA/YIA awards and FASCO designation. Year CDA+YIA n (%) FASCO n (%) P-value 2019 11 (84.6) 2 (15.4) 0.03 2020 17 (81) 4 (19) 2021 21 (77.8) 6 (22.2) 2022 22 (68.8) 10 (31.2) 2023 21 (60) 14 (40) Total 92 36