Academia has a problem
To conduct their survey, Dr. Subbiah and her coinvestigators reached out to 1,000 randomly selected U.S. members of ASCO via the organization’s research survey pool, as well as through Twitter and Facebook. The invitation to participate described the survey as being about the “workplace experience of oncologists” and that it aimed to mitigate response bias.
Of the 271 survey respondents, 250 were oncologists in practice and 21 were residents/fellows. Nearly all were heterosexual (94%) and U.S. citizens (87%). A majority (53%) were White, 35% were Asian/Pacific Islander, and 11% were Black or Hispanic. Most (68%) were more than 5 years out from training.
Most of the respondents (62%) were from academia.
“There is a big problem of sexual harassment in academic medicine,” said Pamela Kunz, MD, of Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, Conn., who was asked for comment. Dr. Kunz left Stanford University in 2020 after 19 years, citing repeated harassment.
“The institutions tend to protect the brand rather than the victim. Perpetrators are often not disciplined and may leave an institution under cover of a resignation only to go on and receive a better leadership role at another institution,” she said in an interview.
A “revolution” is needed to address the problem, Dr. Kunz said, citing needs to routinely discuss the topic, systems to measure and track it, methods to hold perpetrators accountable, and meaningful educational opportunities.
Harassment from patients/families also tallied
The new survey also queried participants with regard to sexual harassment from patients and/or families, which was reported by 67% of women and 35% of men (P < .0001).
As with harassment from peers/supervisors, gender harassment was the most common form and was reported by significantly higher percentages of women.
And as with coworkers, sexual harassment from patients/families was also significantly associated with detriments to mental health, workplace safety, and turnover intentions.
Sexual harassment from “insiders” (P = .001) but not patients (P = .55) was significantly associated with a decrease in a fourth metric in the study – job satisfaction.
“The goal of medicine and oncology is ‘ultimately to ease suffering,’” Dr. Subbiah said. That holds true for workplace wellness, including addressing harassment. “There should be no hesitation to go there and look at what is truly impacting the workplace,” she said.
“This is a difficult topic,” Dr. Subbiah acknowledged, adding that “the findings are sobering and merit open, global conversation among all oncology stakeholders.”
The study authors, Dr. Ganz, and Dr. Stasenko have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
