Analysis of Publishing Output Among Integrated Thoracic Residents Who Have Successfully Matched

N. Samadzadeh Tabrizi¹, M. Shen¹, I. Doshi¹, C. Singh², T. Fabian³, S. Samy³, P. Chan^4
1Albany Medical College, Albany, New York ²Mohawk Valley Health System, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Albany, New York ³Albany Medical Center, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Albany, New York ⁴St. Elizabeth Medical Center, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Purpose: Integrated Cardiothoracic Residency (I6) has become increasingly competitive, with the highest number of applicants per position compared to other surgical subspecialties from 2010 to 2021. Research productivity has emerged as a pivotal factor in candidate selection. We sought to assess the research productivity of successful applicants.

Methods: A retrospective bibliographic search of successful residents enrolled in I6 programs as of April 2023 was conducted. The main objective was to examine the research output trends of applicants over time and explore potential correlations between academic publishing, demographics, and residency placement. Applicants were identified by searching the websites of accredited I6 programs. Data on applicant characteristics, including gender, international medical graduate (IMG) status, medical and postgraduate degrees (MD, DO, PhD, Masters), U.S News 2022 medical school ranking, and research output, encompassing indexed pre- and post-match publications, first authorship, and article types, were retrieved from various databases (e.g., Scopus, Research Gate, PubMed, and LinkedIn). U.S News 2023 cardiology and cardiac surgery ranking, U.S News 2023 pulmonology and thoracic surgery ranking, and alumni publication/clinical trial percentile per Doximetry served as surrogates for affiliated residency ranking. Publishing trends across demographic variables and match cohorts were compared.

Results: A total of 266 applicants who matched into I6 programs from 2015 to 2022 were identified, of which 65% (n=172) were male, 80% (n=212) had an MD, 6.8% (n=18) had an MD/PhD, 54% (n=143) graduated from a Top 40 medical school, and 8.3% (n=22) were IMGs. Overall, residents had a median (IQR) pre-residency publication count of 4 (1, 11), which increased over time (Figure 1) from 2 (0,4) in 2015 to 6 (3,12) in 2022 (p = 0.018). Pre-residency publication count did not show significant associations with gender (p = 0.99), IMG status (p = 0.37), degree(s) obtained including PhD-holders, medical school rank, affiliated hospital rank, and alumni research output, even after stratifying by match-year. When the data was stratified by match year, the rate of publications after matriculation into residency decreased over time (Figure 1). However, pre-residency publication count showed significant associations with higher h-index in 2017 (p = 0.012), 2018 (p < 0.001), 2019 (p < 0.001), and 2021 (p = 0.006) cohorts, greater total publication count in 2021 (p = 0.033) and 2022 (p < 0.001) cohorts, and more first authorships in 2018 (p = 0.048) and 2020 (p = 0.003) cohorts (Table 1).

Conclusion: The rise in pre-residency publications suggests an increasingly competitive applicant pool. Interestingly, the rate of resident publications has declined in recent years. The varying impact of pre-residency publications on the research achievements of I6 residents across cohorts calls for further investigations into the factors shaping the research landscape within this field.

Identify the source of the funding for this research project: This project did not receive any funding.