Ending Gender Inequality in Cardiovascular Clinical Trial Leadership

• Published in: Journal of the American College of Cardiology Vol. 77; no. 23; pp. 2960 - 2972
• Main Authors: Van Spall, Harriette G.C., Lala, Anuradha, Deering, Thomas F., Casadei, Barbara, Zannad, Faiez, Kaul, Padma, Mehran, Roxana, Pearson, Gail D., Shah, Monica R., Gulati, Martha, Grines, Cindy, Volgman, Annabelle Santos, Revkin, James H., Piña, Ileana, Lam, Carolyn S.P., Hochman, Judith S., Simon, Tabassome, Walsh, Mary N., Bozkurt, Biykem
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.06.2021; Elsevier
• Subjects: Cardiology and cardiovascular system; Cardiovascular; clinical trial; disparities; equity; gender; Human health and pathology; leadership; Life Sciences; principal investigator; steering committee; clinical trial; disparities; RCT; CV; gender; principal investigator; leadership; steering committee; PI; equity; HF; heart failure; cardiovascular; randomized controlled trial
• ISSN: 0735-1097; 1558-3597
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2021.04.038

Women are under-represented as leaders of cardiovascular randomized controlled trials, representing 1 in 10 lead authors of cardiovascular trials published in high-impact journals. Although the proportion of cardiovascular specialists who are women has increased in recent years, the proportion of cardiovascular clinical trialists who are women has not. This gap, underpinned by systemic sexism, has not been adequately addressed. The benefits of diverse randomized controlled trial leadership extend to patients and professionals. In this position statement, we present strategies adopted by some organizations to end gender inequality in research leadership. We offer an actionable roadmap for early-career researchers, scientists, academic institutions, professional societies, trial sponsors, and journals to follow, with the goal of harnessing the strength of women and under-represented groups as research leaders and facilitating a just culture in the cardiovascular clinical trial enterprise. [Display omitted] •Women are under-represented in the leadership of high-profile, multicenter cardiovascular clinical trials.•Diversity in clinical trial leadership is associated with more diverse trial participants, which improves the generalizability of results and analysis of treatment interactions.•Systemic sexism must be overcome to enhance the representation of women in cardiovascular practice and trial leadership.•Deliberate action and monitoring of key metrics by individual investigators, academic institutions, professional societies, industry sponsors, funding agencies, and scientific journals are needed to overcome gender inequalities in cardiovascular clinical trial leadership.