Diverse Mentoring Connections Across Institutional Boundaries in the Biomedical Sciences: Innovative Graph Database Analysis

Background With an overarching goal of increasing diversity and inclusion in biomedical sciences, the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) developed a web-based national mentoring platform (MyNRMN) that seeks to connect mentors and mentees to support the persistence of underrepresented minorities in the biomedical sciences. As of May 15, 2024, the MyNRMN platform, which provides mentoring, networking, and professional development tools, has facilitated more than 12,100 unique mentoring connections between faculty, students, and researchers in the biomedical domain. Objective This study aimed to examine the large-scale mentoring connections facilitated by our web-based platform between students (mentees) and faculty (mentors) across institutional and geographic boundaries. Using an innovative graph database, we analyzed diverse mentoring connections between mentors and mentees across demographic characteristics in the biomedical sciences. Methods Through the MyNRMN platform, we observed profile data and analyzed mentoring connections made between students and faculty across institutional boundaries by race, ethnicity, gender, institution type, and educational attainment between July 1, 2016, and May 31, 2021. Results In total, there were 15,024 connections with 2222 mentees and 1652 mentors across 1625 institutions contributing data. Female mentees participated in the highest number of connections (3996/6108, 65%), whereas female mentors participated in 58% (5206/8916) of the connections. Black mentees made up 38% (2297/6108) of the connections, whereas White mentors participated in 56% (5036/8916) of the connections. Mentees were predominately from institutions classified as Research 1 (R1; doctoral universities—very high research activity) and historically Black colleges and universities (556/2222, 25% and 307/2222, 14%, respectively), whereas 31% (504/1652) of mentors were from R1 institutions. Conclusions To date, the utility of mentoring connections across institutions throughout the United States and how mentors and mentees are connected is unknown. This study examined these connections and the diversity of these connections using an extensive web-based mentoring network.


Introduction
Web-based networks have the power and capacity to connect individuals unlike anything we have previously experienced in our society.This connection capacity is especially important for those traditionally underrepresented in the biomedical sciences.Black or African American and Hispanic or Latinx individuals use social media at higher rates than their White counterparts, which may aid their ability to seek mentoring beyond their local networks [1].This is especially important in the realm of health care as diversity in the biomedical workforce is essential for addressing health disparities and other public health needs [2][3][4].The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has invested in diversity-focused initiatives to promote representation from underrepresented groups in higher levels of the biomedical workforce [3].One of these investments is in the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN), which aims to promote diversity among undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and workforce career stages through mentorship and mentoring tools [5,6].
NRMN provides resources (eg, culturally responsive mentoring and networking) remotely through a portal, NRMNet, for the biomedical, educational, and workforce pipeline [5].A key component of NRMNet is the MyNRMN platform, which allows people from all education and career stages to remotely mentor or receive mentorship throughout the United States and territories [7].Mentoring is an integral factor in supporting longevity and persistence in the biomedical science fields and training, as well as for professional development and developing a science identity [8][9][10][11].Moreover, mentoring early and during impressionable stages in a person's education and career pathways may have a cumulative effect for downstream biomedical career success [12].By engaging with MyNRMN, users gain access to a network of mentors and mentees promoting education and career advancement for individuals who may not have access to these resources locally.
Historically, persons from underrepresented minority groups are at a disadvantage when accessing and receiving mentoring compared with nonminority groups [13].Mentorship from persons who identify with challenges specific to underrepresented minorities is a valuable asset for professional development and training [14].Off-site mentorship and self-reflection are key aspects to influential and beneficial mentorships, which often are not accessible within limited networks [15].Furthermore, mentoring or coaching networks, including peer mentors, provide different forms of support for training and development [12,15,16].
MyNRMN provides an accessible platform for mentorship with the goal of providing meaningful connections for persistence in the biomedical sciences.The MyNRMN platform is unique because it crosses state lines and institutional boundaries for mentorship, which is vital for underrepresented minorities who may not have access to mentoring networks or expansive social capital at their own institution.The development of MyNRMN, as discussed by Ahmed et al [7], describes the importance of incorporating social capital and social networks while building and creating this platform.The connections built within MyNRMN increase an individual's social capital, specifically in the biomedical sciences, enabling them to move further in their education and career through the "informational, emotional, and instrumental resources and supports" [7].By observing and understanding the connections within MyNRMN, we can observe how an individual's social capital increases through this network.Future studies will discuss the effects of increased social capital within MyNRMN.
This study aimed to examine the large-scale mentoring connections, facilitated by MyNRMN, between students (mentees) and faculty (mentors) across institutional and geographic boundaries on a large, national mentoring network for biomedical sciences.We assessed the diversity of connections on the platform by gender, race, ethnicity, educational attainment, and minority-serving institution (MSI)-Carnegie classification.We hypothesized that building this web-based platform would create a space for diverse mentoring networks that expand beyond an individual's immediate proximity and personal identity.

MyNRMN Platform
Details of the MyNRMN platform capabilities have been described in previous publications [5,7].Briefly, the platform is a remote mentoring, networking, and career development space where individuals can enroll, create a profile, and sign up to be a mentor or mentee within the network.Additionally, the platform provides a space for "connections" (ie, people linking accounts across the platform) and to form mentoring relationships.In typical academic settings, mentoring is limited to a particular department or institution, but with MyNRMN, a mentee or mentor can connect with a plethora of like-minded biomedical science professionals and students across the nation (8473 mentors and 15,852 mentees as of May 15, 2024), increasing their social capital beyond their immediate location.This includes connections across types of institutions and professional or education levels.For example, a mentee from a 2-year community college in Idaho can connect with a mentor from an institution classified by Carnegie as a Research 1 (R1; doctoral universities-very high research activity) on the East Coast, or a mentee from a 4-year program in Atlanta can connect with somebody from Washington state in a PhD program.In this fashion, MyNRMN can facilitate interactions for those seeking professional or career support, or advice on majors, job opportunities, research areas, graduate school applications, and so on.

Graph Database Infrastructure
MyNRMN is built on a robust graph database called Neo4j, which facilitates creating a rich social graph that mimics real-world social and mentoring connections.Each node can be a mentee, mentor, member, institution, career, location, group, course, mentoring program, or cohort.Additionally, each connection (the link between 2 nodes) is categorized and labeled.For example, a link between a mentor and a mentee is labeled as a mentor-mentee connection and a link between a mentee and a mentee is labeled as a mentee-mentee connection.Figure 1 explains the different types of nodes and the labels of links between the nodes.We have built our platform and graph database to work together, so that every time a mentee connects to a mentor, a mentor connects to another mentor, a mentee connects to another mentee, or a member joins a group, the system creates an entry in our database and captures that in the graph database as a connection by these 2 nodes.

Measures
In the MyNRMN platform, we capture the profile information, which includes demographic fields (eg, gender, race, ethnicity, institution, whether they are first in the family to go to college, and education level).When a member joins MyNRMN, the system syncs the member's profile to our Neo4j graph database, creating a node for the person, location, school, and career, and creates the links between these nodes.Each node includes properties such as system ID and name.For example, the member node includes the member's profile information, for example, system ID, full name, email, alternate email, education, degrees, careers, interest, and has changed school in past 6 months.Likewise, each activity in MyNRMN is also recorded in Neo4j.Through this process, when a member joins a group, enrolls into a course, or joins a cohort, a link is created between the member node and the node of the group, the course, or the cohort the member has joined.
For member connections, the system only records accepted connections; pending and rejected connection requests are not posted to our graph database.However, connections can be made in a multitude of ways using different engagement features [7].For example, a mentee can start a search or seek a mentor using the Find a Mentor tool.The mentee will start with a few keywords and search for different mentors.Once they find a mentor they are interested in connecting with and seeking advice from, they will send a request for connection.The mentor will receive a connection request via email and will have the choice to accept or reject that request.If the request is accepted, the system will create a Connected_to link between the mentee and the mentor nodes in Neo4j.If the request is of a formal mentoring type, a Mentored_by link will be created between the mentee and the mentor nodes.The link can also include properties just like nodes; for example, the Mentored_by link includes information such as mentorship type (one-on-one mentoring or program mentoring), program name, and mentoring path (postbaccalaureate, undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and junior faculty).
If the connection is not accepted, it will stay pending in our platform and will not be added to our graph database.Hence, our graph database maintains the active connections between mentors and mentees.For this paper, we are reporting the network and connection analysis between mentors and mentees for active, accepted connections.To describe our data set, we have extracted 3 different types of data sets analyzing mentee-mentor connections, mentee-mentee connections, and mentor-mentor connections (the latter 2 are considered peer mentoring).For each of these analyses, we have included only the accepted connections on our platform.
For each variable, such as gender, race, ethnicity, education level, and MSI-Carnegie classification, we counted the number of accepted connections based on the role of the requester (member who requested the connection) and the role of the receiver (member who accepted the connection) as follows: mentee-mentor, mentee-mentee, and mentor-mentor.To obtain the number of connections between the categories defined above, we retrieved the profile information of the requester and the receiver of the connection request.For gender, race, ethnicity, and education level, we used the information provided by the member in their profile.The connections by MSI-Carnegie institutions were determined by the institution stated in the member profile.These were then classified into one of the following categories: Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions (AANAPISIs), historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), tribally controlled colleges and universities (TCCUs), Carnegie doctoral university R1, and Carnegie doctoral university R2 (doctoral universities-high research activity).We have defined the MSIs based on the US Department of Education (2020) Eligibility Matrix Report.The Carnegie classification of institutions was based on The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education [17].

Sample
To examine the mentoring connections occurring on MyNRMN, we captured data from July 1, 2016, until May 31, 2021.These data show the MyNRMN connections between mentees and mentors from different genders, races, ethnicities, education levels, and MSI-Carnegie institutions across the country, based on the user's profile data.During this time frame there were 2261 mentees and 1583 mentors contributing connection data.

Data Analysis
This study presents the descriptive counts and frequencies for connections accepted across the MyNRMN platform.These connections are stratified by demographics and institution type.Moreover, we estimated the average connections by demographic and institution characteristics.Alluvial graphs were developed to show the percentage of accepted connections between platform users.

Ethical Considerations
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH under award numbers U54GM119023 and U24GM132217.The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.All user data collected is protected under the North Texas Regional Institutional Review Board, reference number 2015-0720, and stored securely.

Characteristics
During the July 1, 2016, to May 31, 2021, time frame, there were 2222 mentees and 1652 mentors contributing connection data.Tables 1 and 2 describe the number of connections and average connections per user during the study period stratified by gender, race, ethnicity, and institution type.In total, there were 15,024 connections during the study period.Among the connections collected in the aforementioned window, mentors and mentees came from 1625 institutions.The institutions with the highest representation included the partner institutions Tuskegee University (151 connections), Savannah State University (98 connections), University of North Texas Health Science Center (97 connections), and University of Wisconsin-Madison (93 connections).A majority of connections occurred between different institutions (n=4603 connections).

Mentee-Mentor Accepted Connections by Gender
Of the accepted connections between mentees and mentors (n=3645 connections), female mentees made up 72% (2624/3645) of the accepted connections, male mentees made up 27% (999/3645), and those who identified as other gender made up 0.6% (22/3645); see Figure 2.Alternatively, female mentors made up 59% (2136/3645) of the accepted connections, male mentors made up 41% (1503/3645), and those who identified as other made up 0.2% (6/3645) of the accepted connections.Of the accepted connections, female mentees connected with female mentors approximately 61% (1604/2624) of the time, and they connected with male mentors approximately 39% (1016/2624) of the time.Male mentees were almost evenly split in their connection percentages between male and female mentors.Of the accepted connections, female mentors connected with female mentees approximately 75% (1604/2136) of the time, whereas male mentors connected with female mentees approximately 68% (1016/1503) of the time.

Mentee-Mentor Accepted Connections by Education Level
Of the accepted connections between mentees and mentors with educational attainment data (n=3578

Mentor-Mentor Accepted Connections by Educational Attainment
Of the mentors who initiated and accepted mentoring connections (n=2037 connections), 66% (1348/2037) were with people currently working, followed by undergraduates (323/2037, 16%), graduate students (198/2037, 10%), and postdocs (168/2037, 8%); see Figure 16.Among mentors who received and accepted peer mentor requests, a majority were from people currently working (1688/2037, 83%) followed by postdocs (202/2037, 10%), graduate students (113/2037, 6%), and undergraduate students (34/2037, 2%).We developed the MyNRMN platform to increase access to diverse mentoring for mentees across institutions and geographic boundaries across the United States and territories.Access to a diverse and more extensive mentoring network grows the social capital of the mentees.It was hypothesized that by providing a remote platform accessible to a large swath of biomedical students, as well as individuals in the workforce, mentoring connections would occur [7].Our previous work described the intentional recruitment strategies across the United States, with a specific emphasis on minority-serving institutions and conferences that reach diverse audiences [5].The results of these successful strategies provide evidence demonstrating that the hypothesis is correct, as observed by the substantial number of connections between heterogeneous individuals.As such, the MyNRMN platform is addressing the NIH's initiative to provide mentoring support to underrepresented students and scientists [2,18].By addressing this initiative, we can now observe the growth of individuals' social capital, which is crucial to their persistence and advancement in the biomedical sciences [7].
As evident from the data in this study, the MyNRMN platform provides a diverse cohort of mentees access to diverse mentors across the nation.Our platform's goal is to increase diversity of the biomedical workforce, and our mentees are predominantly Black compared with other racial groups, representing a key demographic of interest by the NIH [19].Other racial and ethnic groups also have strong representation on the MyNRMN platform, and there are opportunities to further expand in some subgroups, such as Hispanic or Latinx students.Previous research found that Latina women in the biomedical sciences experience isolation and a low sense of belonging in their undergraduate programs [20]; thus remote mentoring and connections may bridge the gap for less inclusive environments in biomedical science programs.Additionally, we found that a majority of mentees and mentors on this platform identified as female.In fact, there was a gender skew in the proportion of requested and accepted connections to female mentors.This finding may represent a mentoring burden that women, especially women of color, face in academia and training [21].Future work could assess the MyNRMN mentors' perceived workload and burden in these mentoring roles to determine how to ease any encumbrance through the platform.It would also be imperative to assess the variability of workloads across demographics and identities, such as race and ethnicity, and gender, respectively.
Another benefit of the MyNRMN platform is the connectivity with mentors at other institutions.This ability to connect beyond institutional boundaries is crucial for Black or African American and Hispanic or Latinx individuals as it provides support and builds a community of mentors enabling persistence, providing role models, and increasing social capital in spaces that were previously untapped or underresourced [1].There were over 4500 connections between mentors and mentees at different institutions, including significant crossover among HBCUs, MSIs, and R1 and R2 institutions.These connections are contingent on a bridge due to location, resources, and physical distance.An added benefit of these connections is that some institutions may not have senior faculty members with the bandwidth for mentoring or even a faculty member within a mentee's specific discipline.Additionally, remote mentoring can help foster conversations that may not occur in an in-person environment as demonstrated by mentoring during the COVID-19 pandemic [22].Furthermore, having a mentor outside of a person's immediate proximity can provide valuable insight on professional development [23] that cannot be obtained within the organizational culture of a home institution.MyNRMN provides a solution to enable these cross-institutional and long-distance collaborations.Future research should evaluate the ability to recruit and sustain these cross-institutional partnerships on the web-based platform.
The data reported represent connections as the unit of observation rather than persons; thus, some persons may have more connections than others and be more heavily represented in the data.We provided the average number of connections in Table 1 to demonstrate these potential differences by demographic.Additionally, data on demographic characteristics are passively collected based on profile forms on the network, and thus, missing data are an area of concern.As of now, we do not actively collect many elements of diversity, including LGBTQIA+ identity, which is an important facet of the lived experience [24].Thus, the findings from this paper should be considered in the context of potential limitations.In the future, we plan to adjust our data profile fields to be representative of sexual and gender underrepresented groups.Moreover, we did not present data on nonaccepted connections, meaning a user reached out to another user to connect, but the connection was not accepted.It should be noted that all mentor and mentee participation on the platform is voluntary, and competing demands may result in a nonacceptance.We have also observed that connection acceptances are cyclical with the ebbs and flows of the academic semesters when workloads may shift.A mentor's participation is also conditional based on their capacity to engage with additional mentees outside of any requirements or obligations for their position.Future research will explore user experiences with the platform to inform adjustments to meet end-user needs.

Conclusions
Access to mentors is crucial for career advancement and increasing our nation's current and future biomedical workforce.
We developed a web-based national platform to connect mentees and mentors across institutions and geographic boundaries toward this goal.The MyNRMN platform is achieving this goal by facilitating mentoring connections and developing diverse mentoring networks for diverse mentees.By analyzing the organic evolution of mentoring connections throughout MyNRMN, we can observe the value of facilitating and nurturing these connections.In this study, we examined large-scale mentoring connections and the diversity of these connections and addressed a gap in our understanding of how mentees and mentors connect across institutions throughout the United States.We observed that a web-based remote space for mentors and mentees to connect and build their network can enable diverse connections between mentors and mentees.
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/),which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (ISSN 1438-8871), is properly cited.The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/,as well as this copyright and license information must be included.

b
Number of active connections requested or accepted by mentees.c Number of mentors with at least 1 active connection.d Number of active connections requested or accepted by mentors.e AANAPISI: Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institution.fHBCU: historically Black colleges and universities.g HSI: Hispanic-serving institution.
e AANAPISI: Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institution.
f HBCU: historically Black colleges and universities.g HSI: Hispanic-serving institution.
a Number of mentees with at least 1 active connection.

Table 2 .
Connection numbers by type of connection.Number of connections requested by mentees and accepted by mentors.Number of connections requested by mentees and accepted by other mentees.
b Number of connections requested by mentors and accepted by mentees.c d Number of connections requested by mentors and accepted by other mentors.