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Is it Worthwhile to Organize Plastic Surgery into Independent Departments from the Perspective of Academic Productivity?
Stephen Duquette MD1, Nakul Valsangkar2 MD, Umakanth Avula MS1, Neha Lad2 MD, Rajiv Sood1 MD, Juan Socas1 MD, Roberto Flores MD3, Leonidas G. Koniaris2 MD, MBA
1Division of Plastic Surgery,
2Department of General Surgery
Indiana University School of Medicine
2016-01-31
Presenter: Stephen Duquette
Affidavit:
I certify that the material proposed for presentation in this abstract has not been published in any scientific journal or previously presented at a major meeting.
Director Name: Rajiv Sood MD
Author Category: Resident Plastic Surgery
Presentation Category: Clinical
Abstract Category: General Reconstruction
Objective: To determine whether or not departmental status (independent department vs. division) affects academic productivity in plastic surgery, as measured by publications, citations and NIH funding.
Methods: Scholarly metrics were determined for 955 faculty at the 88 ACGME plastic surgery departments and divisions with residency programs. Divisions and departments were ranked based on publications, citations and NIH funding and general characteristics were compared.
Results: The majority of programs continue to be divisions of general surgery (64 vs 24). The highest cited plastic surgery program in this dataset was at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Stanford University had the highest mean H-index of faculty, and University of Michigan had the highest total numbers of NIH awards. There were no clear differences between the top five institutions by each category regarding whether they were divisions or independent departments. Departments had higher numbers of integrated residents (9 vs. 5, p=0.03), had a more even male to female ratio, and a trend towards higher numbers of PhDs (table 1).
Conclusions: No one program is the strongest in every metric of productivity, and the top five most academically productive programs using the metrics in this study represented both independent departments and divisions of general surgery. NIH grants, integrated residencies and individual achievements may be more important than overall departmental organization in determining the academic success of a plastic surgery program.
