The transforming power of early career acute care surgery research scholarships on academic productivity.

Background: Over 75% of respondents to an Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) survey felt that barriers to research had increased and that acute care surgeon (ACS) academic productivity had decreased. Recent data confirm this impression and show lower academic productivity of junior ACS faculty compared to peers in other general surgical fields. The purpose of this study was to determine if early career ACS research scholarships are associated with improved ACS academic productivity. Methods: Faculty data at the top 55 National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded departments of surgery (TOP55) was obtained using SCOPUS, NIH, department and professional society databases. Academic productivity was measured using total publications (PUBS), citations and the h-index. Scholarship recipients from the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) and EAST were identified (RECIPIENTS). Results: 4,101 surgical faculty (8.3% ACS) in TOP55 and 85 RECIPIENTS were identified. After merging, 34 RECIPIENTS (40%) were current faculty at a TOP 55 and 24 of those (71%) were ACS faculty. RECIPIENTS had higher median PUBS compared to NON-RECIPIENTS at assistant and associate ranks, but not at full professor rank. For all ranks, RECIPIENTS were more likely to have NIH funding compared to NONRECIPIENTS (33% vs 11% p

from Emergency Medicine via xlomafota13 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/1ZPygvF