Increasing Female Representation Among Presenters at the Arthroscopy Association of North America Annual Meetings From 2015 to 2023

Purpose The purpose of this study was to analyze the representation of female presenters across various roles at the Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA) annual meetings held between 2015 and 2023. Methods Conference programs from the 2015-2023 AANA annual meetings were reviewed. Meeting presenters were categorized by presenter gender (male and female) and role type (academic or invited). Academic roles were subdivided into paper presentation moderators and paper presentations. Invited roles were further subdivided into symposium moderators, symposium lecturers, panel moderators, and panel members. The content presented was categorized into eight areas: shoulder, elbow, hand, hip, knee, foot and ankle, biologics, and presentations encompassing multiple categories. Female representation among roles and content categories was analyzed using means, proportions, and statistical tests such as two-tailed z-tests and the Pearson correlation coefficient. A p-value <0.05 was considered significant. All statistics were performed on Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA). Results There were 1562 total presenters from 2015 to 2023. Overall, there was an average of 22 female presenters each year, with the highest number of female presenters in 2022 (n = 49). The proportion of female presenters over the study period increased (p < 0.01). While there was no trend in the proportion of female presenters in academic roles (r = 0.20, p = 0.66), there was an increase in the proportion of female presenters in invited roles (r = 0.99, p < 0.01). Among academic roles, there was an increase in female representation among paper presentation moderators (r = 0.93, p < 0.01) and panel members (r = 0.97, p < 0.01). In addition, there was increasing female representation among presentations on the knee (r = 0.83, p = 0.02), biologics (r = 0.83, p = 0.04), and topics encompassing multiple categories (r = 0.89, p < 0.01). Conclusion This study highlights a significant increase in female representation among presenters at the AANA annual meetings from 2015 to 2023, particularly in invited roles and certain content categories like knee, biologics, and multi-category presentations. Collaborations with the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society (RJOS) and the FORUM have had a positive impact on female representation. The increasing trend suggests that ongoing diversity initiatives by AANA, such as the Diversity & Inclusion Task Force, may be contributing to this progress.