Diversity of Department Chairs in Family Medicine at US Medical Schools

Background: As designated department leader, chairs need to be sensitive to diversity and inclusiveness for recruitment and retention of faculty and visibility to medical students and resident physicians. The purpose of this analysis is to describe diversity by sex and race/ethnicity of family medicine (FM) chairs as a beginning to understand trends. Methods: This cross-sectional, observational study involved 2018 to 2020 data from the Association of American Medical Colleges Faculty Roster. We compared this data with other department chairs, faculty, medical school matriculants, and the US general population. Results: There were 407 FM chair observations. While many FM chairs were White males, this was lower than all other clinical departments combined. The proportion of chairs who were under-represented minorities was highest in FM (16.7%) compared with all other departments. The distributions of FM chairs who were Black, Asian, and Native American were comparable with the US population. The proportions of Hispanic FM chairs, FM faculty, and medical school matriculants lagged behind the population. Conclusion: Diversity of department chairs in FM is greater than many other clinical departments and more representative of the US general population. Attention by chairs to leadership development of females and recruitment of Hispanic faculty are priorities.