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PROMOTED-EM: Strategies Used by Women Physicians in Academic Emergency Medicine to Achieve Promotion
ABSTRACT
Background:
Background:
Women physicians remain underrepresented at senior academic ranks in Emergency Medicine (EM), despite near gender parity among trainees and early-career faculty. Prior research has documented barriers to academic promotion; far less attention has been paid to the strategies women employ to navigate them successfully. A systematic, domain-specific account of these experiences may inform faculty development and institutional approaches to academic advancement.
Objective:
Objective:
To describe the design, rationale, and methods of PROMOTED-EM, a multicenter qualitative research program examining promotion strategies across 14 domains of academic career life among women physicians who have achieved the rank of Associate Professor or Full Professor in academic emergency medicine.
Methods:
Methods:
PROMOTED-EM is a multicenter, qualitative research program comprising 14 domain-specific individual interview or focus group studies conducted under a shared protocol (clinical shifts, household duties, maternity leave, network building, mentorship, professional collaboration, public speaking, leadership positions, academic publications, grant funding, conflict resolution, setting boundaries, harassment and bullying, and retention and career continuation). Participants will be enrolled via stratified purposive sampling of women physicians in academic EM who have achieved promotion to Associate Professor or Full Professor. The anticipated enrollment is 8–15 participants per domain, with up to 210 participant-study enrollments across the program. Participants may enroll in multiple domain studies. Individual discussion or focus groups will last approximately 60–90 minutes, be audio-recorded, and transcribed. Framework analysis will serve as the primary analytic approach, applying the 14 predefined domains as an organizing structure while allowing themes to emerge inductively within each domain until thematic sufficiency is achieved. Deidentified data will be managed in Dedoose. The Mass General Brigham (MGB) Institutional Review Board (IRB) has approved the study (Protocol # 2026P002507).
Results:
Results:
This manuscript describes a prospective study protocol. Recruitment and data collection for the Grant Funding domain are planned to begin in November 2026. Findings are intended for dissemination through 14 domain-specific peer-reviewed publications, a cross-domain synthesis paper, national EM conferences, and specialty organizations, including the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), the Academy for Women in Academic Emergency Medicine (AWAEM), and the American Association of Women Emergency Physicians (AAEM).
Conclusions:
Conclusions:
PROMOTED-EM is a comprehensive initiative to examine strategies reported by women physicians who have achieved academic promotion across 14 domains of academic EM. By systematically documenting these experiences, the research program aims to generate empirically grounded findings that may inform individual faculty development and institutional approaches to academic advancement. Clinical Trial: N/A
Citation
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Copyright
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