TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender Disparity in Surgical Device Patents
T2 - A 5-year Trend From Canada and the United States
AU - Booth, Lindsay E.
AU - Lo, Fu (Jorden)
AU - Davis, Melissa A.
AU - Spalluto, Lucy B.
AU - Yee, Judy
AU - Yong-Hing, Charlotte J.
AU - Murray, Nicolas
AU - Alwazzan, Ahmad B.
AU - Khosa, Faisal
N1 - Funding Information:
Dr Faisal Khosa is the recipient of the American College of Radiology Global Humanitarian Award (2021), the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada McLaughlin-Gallie Visiting Professor (2021), and the BC Achievement Foundation–Mitchell Award of Distinction. Dr Judy Yee is the recipient of funding from GE Healthcare and Philips . This research received no specific grants from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.
Funding Information:
Dr Faisal Khosa is the recipient of the American College of Radiology Global Humanitarian Award (2021), the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada McLaughlin-Gallie Visiting Professor (2021), and the BC Achievement Foundation–Mitchell Award of Distinction. Dr Judy Yee is the recipient of funding from GE Healthcare and Philips. This research received no specific grants from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Introduction: Despite an increasing number of women pursuing careers in science, engineering, and medicine, gender disparities in patents persist. This study sought to analyze trends in inventor's gender for surgical device patents filed and granted in Canada and the United States from 2015 to 2019. Methods: This study analyzed patents filed and granted by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) in the category of “Diagnosis; Surgery; Identification” and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in the category of “Surgery” from 2015 to 2019. The gender of the patent applicants was determined using a gender algorithm that predicts gender based on first names. Gender matches with names having a probability of less than 95% were excluded. Results: We identified 14,312 inventors on patents filed and 12,737 inventors on patents granted by the CIPO for “Diagnosis; Surgery; Identification”. In the USPTO category of “Surgery,” we identified 75,890 inventors on patents filed and 44,842 inventors on patents granted. Female inventors accounted for 7%-10% of inventors from 2015 to 2019 for both patents filed and granted. The proportion of female inventors on patents granted was significantly lower than for patents filed for four of the 5 y analyzed for both the USPTO and CIPO. Conclusions: Female representation in surgical device patenting has stagnated, between 7 and 10%, from 2015 to 2019 in Canada and the United States. This underrepresentation of female inventors in surgical device patenting represents sizable gender disparity.
AB - Introduction: Despite an increasing number of women pursuing careers in science, engineering, and medicine, gender disparities in patents persist. This study sought to analyze trends in inventor's gender for surgical device patents filed and granted in Canada and the United States from 2015 to 2019. Methods: This study analyzed patents filed and granted by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) in the category of “Diagnosis; Surgery; Identification” and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in the category of “Surgery” from 2015 to 2019. The gender of the patent applicants was determined using a gender algorithm that predicts gender based on first names. Gender matches with names having a probability of less than 95% were excluded. Results: We identified 14,312 inventors on patents filed and 12,737 inventors on patents granted by the CIPO for “Diagnosis; Surgery; Identification”. In the USPTO category of “Surgery,” we identified 75,890 inventors on patents filed and 44,842 inventors on patents granted. Female inventors accounted for 7%-10% of inventors from 2015 to 2019 for both patents filed and granted. The proportion of female inventors on patents granted was significantly lower than for patents filed for four of the 5 y analyzed for both the USPTO and CIPO. Conclusions: Female representation in surgical device patenting has stagnated, between 7 and 10%, from 2015 to 2019 in Canada and the United States. This underrepresentation of female inventors in surgical device patenting represents sizable gender disparity.
KW - Equity, diversity, and inclusion
KW - Gender diversity
KW - Patents
KW - Surgery
KW - Surgical device patents
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jss.2022.07.016
DO - 10.1016/j.jss.2022.07.016
M3 - Article
C2 - 36027658
AN - SCOPUS:85136484013
SN - 0022-4804
VL - 280
SP - 248
EP - 257
JO - Journal of Surgical Research
JF - Journal of Surgical Research
ER -
