Introduction:
There is growing concern regarding the attrition of surgeon-scientists in cardiothoracic (CT) surgery. The academic impact of conducting basic science research (BSR) during training, however, remains unknown. We hypothesized that CT surgeons who publish a first-author BSR paper during training exhibit enhanced future academic productivity.
Methods:
CT surgeons on faculty at accredited United States CT surgery training hospitals in 2018 who published a first-author BSR paper or a first-author clinical research (CR) paper during training were identified (n=762). To normalize for environmental differences in research exposure, we specifically studied the surgeons who pursued a research fellowship and who attended a top-50 NIH-funded institution at every stage of training (n=252). Data regarding each surgeon’s professional history and publication record were obtained from publicly-available online sources.
Results:
As shown in Table 1, surgeons who published a first-author paper in BSR during training and those who published a first-author paper only in CR share similar characteristics and have practiced as an attending surgeon for a similar duration (11.0 years each, p=0.486). However, surgeons who published a first-author BSR paper during training ultimately published more papers per year as an attending (4.3 vs 2.8, p=0.017), resulting in more total publications (73.5 vs 47.5, p=0.003) and a greater H-index (22.0 vs 18.0, p=0.004). The surgeons who published a first-author BSR paper during training were also more likely to have published a BSR paper in the past 2 years as an attending, both as a first or last author (12.0% vs 2.0%, p=0.004), or as a co-author (34.0% vs 15.7%, p=0.001).
Conclusions:
Academic CT surgeons who published a first-author BSR paper during training exhibit enhanced research productivity and scholarly impact. Funding and institutional support for aspiring CT surgeon-scientists may yield career-long academic benefits.
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