Endangered academia: preserving the pediatric surgeon scientist

Abstract

Background: Pediatric surgery is one of the most difficult surgical fellowships to obtain. It requires stellar academic credentials and, often, dedicated time pursuing research. It is unknown, however, if pediatric surgeons maintain high academic output as faculty members. We hypothesized that the majority of pediatric surgeons do not pursue robust research activities as faculty, and therefore, over time, their academic productivity decreases. Methods: Numbers of publications, citations, H-index, and NIH funding rates were determined for 4354 surgical faculty at the top-55 NIH based departments of surgery using websites, Scopus, NIH RePORTER, and Grantome. Continuous variables were compared with ANOVA and post-hoc Bonferroni; categorical variables by χ2 test. p < 0.05 was significant. Results: In this dataset, 321 pediatric surgery (PS) faculty represented 7.4% of the cohort. Among PS faculty, 31% were assistant professors, 24% associate professors, 31% full professors and 13% had no academic rank. PS faculty had significantly more publications, a higher H index, and more high level NIH funding early in their careers at the assistant professor level compared to general surgeons. PS faculty at the associate professor level had equivalent high level NIH funding, but lower recentness and academic power compared to general surgeons. Professors of PS rebounded slightly, with only observed deficiencies in number of citations compared to general surgeons. Conclusions: PS faculty in assistant professor ranks has higher scholarly productivity compared to equivalently ranked general surgeons. Despite some mild academic setbacks in midcareer, pediatric surgeons are able to maintain similar academic productivity to their general surgery colleagues by the time they are full professors. Level of evidence: 2.

Pediatric Surgical Research Output in Germany in the Last 30 Years – An Assessment and International Comparison of Three Dedicated Paediatric Surgical Journals

“…Declining numbers of original articles in our study fit well with storylines of what others described "endangered" (24) or "extinct" (5) surgeon-scientists. Similar results of decreasing research productivity in surgical research journals were not only described for general surgery in the United States (3), but also for German general surgery based on Langenbeck's Archive of Surgery (25) as well as for the United Kingdom and Ireland (26).…”

Comprehensive Researcher Achievement Model (CRAM): a framework for measuring researcher achievement, impact and influence derived from a systematic literature review of metrics and models

“…A past record of being funded by national agencies was identified as a common measurement of individual academic achievement (particularly productivity, quality and impact) in a number of papers and has been argued to be a reliable method that is consistent across medical research 111–113. For example, the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools system encourages public accountability for funding by providing online access to reports, data and NIH-funded research projects 111 114…”

Facilitating Success of the Early Stage Surgeon Scientist Trainee

“…[2][3][4] Losing the surgeon scientist pipeline would remove a critical segment of scientists who are motivated and uniquely positioned to recognize, investigate and craft innovative and impactful solutions for surgical patients. The concern over a vanishing surgeon scientist pipeline has been echoed in publications representing many surgical subspecialties including cardiothoracic surgery, 5 pediatric surgery, 6 and transplant surgery. 7 Although much emphasis is justifiably oriented towards the mentorship and development of early career faculty towards scientific success, the training of early stage surgeon scientists at the undergraduate, medical student and resident levels warrants equal emphasis.…”

“…Losing the surgeon scientist pipeline would remove a critical segment of scientists who are motivated and uniquely positioned to recognize, investigate and craft innovative and impactful solutions for surgical patients. The concern over a vanishing surgeon scientist pipeline has been echoed in publications representing many surgical subspecialties including cardiothoracic surgery, 5 pediatric surgery, 6 and transplant surgery 7 …”