Challenging Issues in Surgical Critical Care, Trauma, and Acute Care Surgery: A Report From the Critical Care Committee of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma

Background Research productivity is critical to academic surgery and essential for advancing surgical knowledge and evidence-based practice. We aim to determine if surgeon affiliation with top US universities/hospitals (TOPS) is associated with increased research productivity measured by numbers of peer-reviewed publications in PubMed (PMIDs). Methods A bibliometric analysis was performed for PMIDs. Affiliated authors who published in trauma surgery (TS), surgical critical care (SCC), acute care surgery (ACS), and emergency general surgery (EGS) were evaluated for publications between 2015 and 2019, and lifetime productivity. Our analysis included 3443 authors from 443 different institutions. Our main outcome was PMIDs of first author (FA) and senior author (SA) in each field (2015-2019) and total lifetime publications. Results Significant differences exist between PMIDs from TOPS vs non-TOPS in FA-TS (1.34 vs 1.23, P = .001), SA-TS (1.71 vs 1.46, P < .001), total SA-PMIDs (44.10 vs 26.61, P < .001), and SA-lifetime PMIDs (90.55 vs 59.03, P < .001). There were no significant differences in PMIDs for FA or SA-SCC, FA or SA-ACS, FA or SA-EGS, FA-total PMIDs 2015-2019, or FA-lifetime PMIDs ( P > .05 for all). Conclusion There were significantly higher TS PMIDs among FAs and SAs affiliated with top US institutions in 2015-2019, along with higher total PMIDs (2015-2019) and lifetime PMIDs. These findings are of significance to future graduate medical applicants and academic surgeons who need to make decisions about training and future career opportunities.

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Perceptions and Attitudes of Critical Care Training and Careers among United States Surgical Residents: Who Wants to be a Surgical Intensivist?

The American Surgeon ◽

10.1177/000313480707300502 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 73 (5) ◽

pp. 433-437 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Stephen M. Cohn ◽

Michelle A. Price ◽

Ronald M. Stewart ◽

Basil A. Pruitt ◽

Daniel L. Dent

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Critical Care ◽

Acute Care ◽

Trauma Surgery ◽

The United States ◽

Acute Care Surgery ◽

Surgical Residents ◽

Perceptions And Attitudes ◽

Surgical Critical Care ◽

Care Surgery

Less than 50 per cent of surgical critical care (SCC) fellowship positions are filled each year. We surveyed senior surgical residents to determine their opinions regarding a career in SCC and acute care surgery. A survey was sent to 1348 postgraduate year 3, 4, and 5 residents in the United States. Two hundred fifty-one surveys were returned (19% response rate). Whereas 78 per cent were planning to complete a fellowship, 21 per cent expressed interest in SCC. Fifty-six per cent plan to handle SCC problems only for their own patients, whereas 39 per cent plan to turn this management over to a critical care provider. SCC fellowships were considered to be potentially more appealing if the following changes could be made to the existing structure: adding more general surgery (70% of respondents); adding more trauma experience (50%); adding emergency neurosurgery (44%); adding more emergency orthopedics (42%); or decreasing months of critical care (36%). Increasing salary enhanced appeal for 82 per cent. SCC has limited appeal for most senior surgical residents. Theoretical expansion of surgical critical fellowships to include more general or trauma surgery (acute care surgery) increased the level of interest among senior surgical residents.

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