We appreciate Dr. Rutherford's comment regarding women in orthopaedic surgery and are in full agreement. The latest ACGME data (2007-2008 academic year) show that women constitute only 12.4% of residents in orthopaedics; this is only slightly higher than neurosurgery which has the lowest prevalence of women of all major subspecialties-- 11.1%. The number of women entering our subspecialty is not changing rapidly either. In 2006-2007 only 11% of orthopaedic residents were women.

Of interest, this topic will be the subject of a symposium at the American Orthopaedic Association annual meeting in 2010. Obviously, more tangible progress is needed in this area.

To the Editor:

I commend Dr. Emery and colleagues for the article "Orthopaedic Education--Are We Attracting the Best and Brightest?" (1). What I did not see in the symposium was reference to the fact that orthopedics has one of the lowest percentages of women of any specialty, whereas about half the graduates of US medical schools are women. Until this imbalance is addressed and corrected, are we attracting only half of the best and brightest?

The author did not receive any outside funding or grants in support of his research for or preparation of this work. Neither he nor a member of his immediate family received payments or other benefits or a commitment or agreement to provide such benefits from a commercial entity. No commercial entity paid or directed, or agreed to pay or direct, any benefits to any research fund, foundation, division, center, clinical practice, or other charitable or nonprofit organization with which the author, or a member of his immediate family, is affiliated or associated.

Reference

1. Emery SE, Waddell JP, Waddell AE, McCaslin M, Black K. Orthopaedic education--are we attracting the best and the brightest? J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2009;91:1253-63.