Addressing Disparities in Academic Medicine: Moving Forward.

nism by which outdoor activities may provide a benefit in reducing myopia so the intervention can be precisely designed. Given the popular appeal of increased outdoor activities to improve the health of school-aged children in general, the potential benefit of slowing myopia development and progression by those same activities is difficult to ignore. Although prescribing this approach with the intent of helping to prevent myopia would appear to have no risk, parents should understand that the magnitude of the effect is likely to be small and the durability is uncertain. association between time spent outdoors and myopia in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Effect of time spent outdoors at school on the development of myopia among children in China: a randomized clinical trial. et al. Outdoor activity during class recess reduces myopia onset and progression in school children. Effect of outdoor activity on myopia onset and progression in school-aged children in northeast China. The potential of women in medicine and science, like those in many other professions, has not been fully realized. 1 When compared with men, women in these fields are paid less, 2,3 have higher rates of attrition, 4 have fewer scientific publications, 5 and are less likely to apply for NIH funding and to be principal investigators. 6 It is not surprising therefore, that women are less likely to advance to the highest ranks in academic medicine. 7 In this issue of JAMA, Jena and colleagues 8 and Sege and colleagues 9 add to the existing literature by providing data from new sources. The article by Jena et al, reports data regarding faculty rank obtained through Doximity, described as the largest social network for physicians and claiming half of all physicians in the United States as members. Sege et al present data from 2 biomedical research programs for junior investigators that included documentation of start-up support, a variable not previously reported. Jena et al found that in a cohort of more than 90 000 physicians in academic medicine centers, including more than 30 000 women, women were less likely than men to be full professors (11.9% vs 28.6%). There are several possible explanations for this finding. The simplest explanation for the gender disparity at senior academic ranks is that female faculty members are younger than their male faculty colleagues. As such, it has been argued, women may not have been faculty members for sufficient …