2008 Joan F. Giambalvo Memorial Scholarship winners announced

This year, the AMA WPC Governing Council decided to award two scholarships.

The first scholarship was presented to Sue Yom, MD,PhD. Dr. Yom is an Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). In her study, Dr. Yom will examine why women faculty leave and the costs associated by the respective institutions due to this lack of retention. In a 2002 survey conducted by her institution, it was found that while both male and female physicians derived great satisfaction from their work, women had more critical views and negative experiences in a number of areas ranging from income satisfaction to support for their lives outside of work. Dr. Yom plans to design a new survey based on the data found in the 2002 survey and administer the survey to all male and female faculty who held an academic appointment at UCSF from 1997-2007. As she poses questions specific to the data acquired in the 2002 survey, she hopes to identify specific reasons women are leaving practice, the costs associated with staying in practice, and the current retention efforts aimed at women physicians. In addition to submitting her findings for publication and various presentations, Dr. Yom plans to present her findings to UCSF and other leading medical centers to encourage interventions designed to reduce attrition among all faculty, but particularly female faculty.   

The second scholarship was presented to Maurice Clifton, MD, MSEd. Dr. Clifton is the Associate Dean for Admissions and Student Affairs with the Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, GA. In his study, he will examine the two kinds of obstacles he believes are preventing more women from practicing in rural areas. The first type of obstacle relates to characteristics of the physician (e.g. comfort level living in a rural area). The second type relates to the practice location in which the physician may practice/teach (e.g. quality of schools). Through qualitative open-ended questions, Dr. Clifton hopes to better understand these obstacles faced by women physicians in order to design interventions to better target applicants to serve rural areas. His survey will be administered to women physicians practicing in the Southeast for between one and three years. Women to be surveyed will come from the following three specialties: family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics. In addition to submitting his findings for publication and various presentations, Dr. Clifton also plans to use these findings to develop a grant proposal to solicit additional funds which may be used in designing interventions.

2007 Joan F. Giambalvo Memorial Scholarship winners

Ethan Jewett, MA and Patricia Turner, MD  were the 2007 Joan F. Giambalvo Memorial Scholarship recipients.

Mr. Jewett hopes to identify the barriers currently keeping inactive physicians out of practice in order to develop useful solutions and models for physicians to reenter the workforce. Dr. Turner is interested in examining the impact questions and attitudes regarding childbearing have on a woman’s decision to pursue a career in surgery. She will also investigate if a career choice of surgery has negative impacts on a woman’s likelihood to bear children.

Information about the Joan F. Giambalvo Memorial Scholarship Fund

The American Medical Association (AMA) Women Physicians Congress (WPC) has established the Joan F. Giambalvo Memorial Scholarship Fund with the goal of advancing the progress of women in the medical profession and strengthening the AMA’s ability to identify and address the needs and interests of women physicians and medical students.

Proposals for the  2008 Joan F. Giambalvo Memorial Scholarship Fund will be accepted between Nov. 1, 2007 and Feb. 1, 2008.  Additional information on the scholarship, including an application is available (PDF, 1.2MB requires Adobe® Reader®)

Women currently represent approximately 50% of matriculating medical students and 26% of all practicing physicians. This continued increase of women in the profession is believed to be effecting the way medicine is practiced and delivered in the United States. However, there is a lack of empirical studies providing comprehensive and/or reliable data about such phenomenon. As a result, stereotypes, misinformation and unsubstantiated theories about the potential effects of women in the physician workforce are sometimes suggested by the media and others.

For example, are women physicians dropping out of medicine in any significant number? Does/should the number of women practicing part time influence work force requirements over the long haul? While data show that women work fewer hours and see fewer patients, the effects of this on patient care in the short of long term, are less than clear. Some authors have suggested that an increase of women in the physician workforce would improve medicine by encouraging patient-centered care, re-establishing a commitment to team building and leadership, and fostering greater societal equity and less competition.

Research supported by the Joan F. Giambalvo Memorial Scholarship Fund on these and other issues generated by and/or affecting women in medicine is essential to evaluating the impact of women on the medical workforce and providing important baselines for understanding medicine in the 21st century. Such research also will help the AMA to identify and better serve this important AMA member constituency.

Note: Pursuant to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations, the recipient may receive a 1099 form from the AMA for this award. Any taxes shall be the sole responsibility of the recipient. The recipient is advised to consult with his/her accountant. If appropriate, recipient may request that the AMA issue the award funds to his/her employer so long as the funds are used for recipient’s research project.

Joan F. Giambalvo Memorial Scholarship winner in the news
Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPHIL, the first person to receive the Joan F. Giambalvo Memorial Scholarship, is the primary author of an article in the July 20 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The authors of the article, entitled “The ‘Gender Gap’ in Academic Medical Literature- a 35 year perspective” found that while the proportion of women among both first and senior physician-authors of original research in the United States has increased, women still compose a minority of the authors of original research and guest editorials in the journals.View abstract of article. (This link takes you off of the AMA Web site. The AMA is not responsible for content on non-AMA Web sites.)

About Joan F. Giambalvo, MD

Joan Fara Giambalvo received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and, in 1956, her medical degree from Temple University Medical School. Dr. Giambalvo was an intern at Temple University Hospital and certified in her residency by the American Board of Anesthesiology. Dr. Giambalvo passed away on May 14, 1971, at age 39, of liposarcoma.

If you would like further information regarding the scholarship send us an e-mail.