Student Presenter(s): Helen Wong, Pauline Huang, Anisa Raidah, Lucas Hildreth, and Naveed Tariq
Faculty Mentor: Sheldon Yao
School/College: Osteopathic Medicine, Old Westbury

Diversity in medicine, especially in gender equality of provider, has been a goal of many professional organizations, like the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM). Starting in 2020, female matriculants to osteopathic medical schools surpassed male matriculants. With this new change in demographics, general perceptions of osteopathic medical students should be re-established. To determine whether diversity in medicine extends to residency and career selection, we are examining the relationship between gender and desired specialty. A self-administered 43-item confidential questionnaire was distributed to all current medical students at NYITCOM using an email listserv. The questionnaire included items addressing student perceptions toward OMM, demographics, and desired specialty. 249 students completed the questionnaire. A chi-square analysis on the association between “desired specialty” and “male or female” resulted in a statistically significant p-value of 0.001. Compared to the female group, the male group preferred medical or surgical specialties with higher proportions. The female group preferred primary care specialties. Many factors are known to influence the specialty pursued by medical students; this statistically significant difference indicates that gender may be an important determinant for career choice.